The Severus Snape Advent Calendar, Take 8
by HappyAuriga
Summary: Once again, it's December and Severus Snape is waiting for Christmas.
1. 1st of December

1

It was the first of December and Severus Snape was making his way up to the Great Hall deep in thought. For the last seven years, December had been a month of joy. Well, mostly, he had to admit. Every year he had had an advent calendar, not only for himself but for the entire school. The first had come from Santa himself, and the population of Hogwarts had liked it so much that from then on, every year somebody had thought up an advent calendar. It had been a lot of fun, mostly, but for a couple of windows that had gone wrong.

This year, Severus could not imagine who would give him another calendar. Creating an advent calendar was a lot of work, nobody in their right mind would make one twice. Of course Severus had not yet made one himself but he was more the type who enjoyed opening the windows than trying to think up what to put into the windows.

Therefore, the potions master was resigned to the fact that there was not going to be another calendar and that made him sad.

"Good morning, my boy," Albus Dumbledore greeted his youngest teacher jovially. "We were starting to think you had gone missing." He looked at the young man expectantly.

"Good morning," Severus returned the greeting and reached for the coffee pot.

"Oh no, you don't," McGonagall brought her hand down on the pot so that Severus could not lift it. "We have been waiting long enough. Where is it?"

"Where is what?" Severus asked, puzzled.

The witch rolled her eyes. "The calendar!"

"Oh!" Snape blushed. Of course he was not the only one who had enjoyed his calendars. Maybe he should have made one after all. "I'm sorry, but this year there won't be a calendar."

"Honestly?" McGonagall asked. "How disappointing!" She let go of the coffee pot and shook her head at the Gryffindor table. The students hung their shoulders and some sniffles were heard.

Snape helped himself to some toast and scrambled eggs but the food tasted like cardboard to him, especially when the air of disappointment spread from the Gryffindors to the other house tables.

He was halfway through his plate of eggs when the post owls arrived. Draco Malfoy got the usual care package from his mother, many of the older students got their copies of the Daily Prophet, and Severus Snape got a howler. A pink one.

It took the potions master all of two seconds to realise who had written him that letter. Therefore, he was not surprised, when the howler started to talk in voice of a young woman.

"Seveeerus," the letter aspirated, "I wish you a very happy first of December! It was so good to be back at Hogwarts last year, I simply had to do something for you and all those delightful people there! Please use an enlargement charm on the remains of this letter." That said, the letter threw the potions master a kiss and then exploded into a rain of pink confetti, which – strangely enough – first rained down on the potions master and then gathered on a small plate that had not been there a moment before.

Snape obeyed immediately and pointed his wand at the confetti. It was amazing how a simple "Engorgio!" made the plate change into an ornate golden goblet and the confetti into small pink envelopes that bore numbers.

"What a splendid piece of magic!" Albus Dumbledore clapped his hands, "I always thought your apprentice was a gifted young witch but sometimes she surprises even me."

"It takes a lot of determination and concentration to charm an object into reacting differently than intended to a spell," the resident charms master informed the Great Hall at large. "I think I shall try and teach the seventh years how to do this during their afternoon lesson."

"May the sixth years try, too?" Ginny Weasley asked from the Gryffindor table. "Please?"

"I'm afraid it will be too advanced," mused Flitwick, "but why not? Trying can't hurt."

"Well," McGonagall rubbed her hands with glee, "we do have an advent calendar now. Open it!"

Snape rummaged through the content of the goblet until he found the envelope bearing the number one. As soon as he touched it, the words "this is to be opened by Severus Snape" appeared beneath the golden number.

The potions master obeyed and opened the envelope. A gush of pink sparks exploded out of it, gathered in a whirlwind that moved over the head table twice and finally moved onto the head of one Severus Snape where the sparks manifested in a bright pink Santa hat.

"There, you grouch!" giggled the voice of Snape's apprentice. "Take this token of Christmassy merriment until I come to bring some Christmas joy in person. I have to finish a project here but I promise I will be there before Christmas."

There was another small explosion and the potions master, Dumbledore and McGonagall were showered in more pink confetti. A small roll of parchment appeared on McGonagall's plate. The witch opened it and after a quick look read it out for the whole student body to hear.

"Dear everybody,

I wish you a delightful Advent and hope my little calendar will bring you some joy. To open a window, Severus must touch it on the correct day and he has to wear his new hat or the magic will not work.

I will see everybody soon! Love, Snape's Apprentice"

The students cheered and the rest of the meal was mixed with laughter and guesses what the advent calendar held in store.

"Whatever it is," Draco Malfoy pointed out to his fellow Slytherins, "it's probably pink." The snakes nodded. Since the maker of the calendar had lived with her master – their head of house – for a couple of years, they knew her better than most other students.

"That hat suits him," Pansy Parkinson agreed. "I hope I get one like that, too."

"Wouldn't that be boring if everybody got a hat?" Vincent Goyle mused.

"I'm glad we have another calendar," Albus Dumbledore meanwhile informed his staff at the Head Table. "In the years we had one, the students were much better behaved than usual during the month of December."

The other teachers agreed. Nobody wanted to risk being banned from the window opening.

"I'd say, a month of well-behaved students is the greatest gift the calendar brings," the Head of Hufflepuff pointed out. Again everybody agreed.

Snape drained his cup of coffee and got up. "You'll excuse me, I have a lesson to prepare and a hat to leave in my office."

"Why don't you wear it? I'm sure it's intended for that," asked McGonagall.

"And risk it being damaged and the calendar not working?" Snape sneered. "I think not!"

That said, he gathered his robes around his frame in a dramatic gesture and set off to Slytherin territory.

McGonagall sighed. "I always expect him to turn into a bat and fly away when he does that."

"Don't let him hear that," Dumbledore advised but he, too, giggled. All in all, the mood in the hall had improved dramatically since the arrival of the calendar. And if anybody had bothered to follow Snape to the dungeons, they would have heard the potions master whistle a Christmas song.


	2. 2nd of December

2

When Severus Snape left his quarters the next morning, he was greeted politely by no other than Draco Malfoy. "Good morning, Sir," the blond bid.

The potions master – who had been in thought as he closed his door – whirled around and pointed his wand at the young Slytherin's throat in one smooth move.

"Woah!" cried the blond and held up his hands defensively.

"You nearly gave me a heart attack, Malfoy!" Snape spat.

"I apologize, Sir," the boy offered smoothly. "I didn't mean to startle you. I just wanted to remind you not to forget the hat, Sir."

"Are you hoping to get the next window?" sneered the potions master.

"Not at all," Malfoy fell into a slow trot beside his head of house, "I never was close enough to your apprentice to be considered for one of the windows. My motive was to spare you having to go back to the dungeons to get the hat."

"Who says I have to bring it?" Snape sped up a bit, forcing the boy into a run if he wanted to keep up.

"There would be rebellion if you didn't," Malfoy pointed out. "By the way, where is it?"

"That's for me to know," Snape growled.

The blond came to a stop and shrugged. He had tried to be of assistance and was not going to force the potions master to accept his help. Not that anybody could force the head of Slytherin into anything he didn't want to do. Rumour had it that even the Dark Lord occasionally came to grief against the potions master's stubbornness.

"Good morning, Severus," the headmaster greeted the potions master as the latter made his way to the head table. "Where is your hat?"

"Coffee first," Snape growled. "I refuse to do this on an empty stomach."

"But Severus, everybody is waiting!" McGonagall pointed out.

"They can easily wait a couple of minutes longer," the potions master pointed out. "It's not as if there was a time limit."

The assembled student body watched as Snape filled his cup and plate and started to eat. The potions master had eaten no more than three bites of bacon when he dropped his knife and fork. "I can't do this when I'm being watched!" he complained. "Stop spoiling my appetite!"

"Why don't you open the window and just be done with it?" asked Dumbledore.

Snape got up from his seat and threw his napkin beside his plate with a lot more force than necessary. "Fine!" he spat. After a bit of rummaging in his pocket, the potions master produced his new Santa hat and put it on.

"Be careful or you'll soil your robes with bacon," McGonagall admonished.

"There wouldn't be any danger of that if I had been able to eat the bacon in peace!" Snape complained but reached for the goblet holding the pink envelopes. It took a little time to find number two but once the potions master had found it he watched golden letters appear beneath the number.

"This window is for Slytherin house," Snape read out for everybody to hear. "The head boy or girl if we have them is to open the window on behalf of the house. If the head boy and girl are not in Slytherin, the oldest Slytherin prefect gets to open the window."

"That's Mr. Malfoy," McGonagall pointed out. Being the deputy headmistress she knew all the students' data.

"I know my house, Minerva," Snape pointed out. "Mr. Malfoy, if you please."

The blond walked up to the head table, trying not to look too eager. "Thank you, Sir," he said as he was given the pink envelope. He made a show of presenting the envelope to his housemates before he opened it.

Once again, pink sparkles burst out of the envelope but this time they didn't settle on the person who had opened the window but spread all over the Slytherin table. The sparks moved to and fro and finally gathered in three positions which were equally distanced from each other and the ends of the table. The sparks started to whirl and the Slytherin students watched as three beautiful centrepieces formed out of thin air.

The new additions to the table seemed to be made of silver and were decorated with a mixture of Christmassy motives and snakes. Twigs of tinsel and holly perfected the pieces.

"Beautiful!" cheered Albus Dumbledore from the head table. "Truly beautiful!"

The Slytherin students agreed and Draco Malfoy asked Snape to thank his apprentice on behalf of the house.

"What a nice piece of transfiguration!" McGonagall acknowledged. "I think I'll try and teach my students how to do something like that. By the way, how did it go yesterday, Filius?"

"It's very difficult, as I said," the small Charms master pointed out. "By the end of the lesson only three students had succeeded. But there are some who will master the spell if they practice some more. I gave them until Christmas to learn it for extra credit."

"Who did succeed?" asked Dumbledore.

Snape rolled his eyes. "Let me guess," he stopped Flitwick from answering with a raised hand. "Granger." The smaller wizard nodded. "Malfoy." Another nod. "The third one is difficult. Not Potter. And not Weasley. Hmmmm."

"Actually, it was a Weasley who succeeded," Flitwick replied. "Just not Ronald. It was Ginevra who was able to produce good results within a short time. That girl is really good with charms."

McGonagall agreed. "I think out of all Weasley children she is best with a wand but perhaps Bill."

A discussion of the various Weasleys' talents ensued but Severus Snape didn't partake. Now that the advent calendar had been dealt with, he had time to enjoy his breakfast and enjoy it he did.

The Slytherin students were all happy because for once they had got something nice before everybody else. With the headmaster's usual favouritism for Gryffindor house it was a rare occurrence that Slytherin would get a privilege first.

Snape made a mental note to thank the apprentice when she came to visit. He wondered when that was going to be. Maybe he should do something nice for her, prepare some flowers or something. That needed some thinking.


	3. 3rd of December

3

Snape made sure to check whether somebody had taken it upon themselves to remind him of bringing the hat when he left his quarters the next morning. Luckily, nobody was there. It would have been all that he needed, a student jumping at him every morning. He was not proud of threatening Malfoy like that the previous day.

The potions master locked his door magically and then made his way up the blissfully student-free corridor towards the Great Hall.

Although he was a little earlier than usual everybody else was already there. So much for having a quiet cup of coffee before the hubbub began.

"One cup of coffee and a slice of toast before anybody mentions the calendar," Snape snarled at the other teachers as he sat down.

"We have other problems," McGonagall informed him before she turned back to Flitwick who was sitting at her other side.

"It's not my fault, Minerva," squeaked the small Charms master.

"If it's not yours, whose else is it?" McGonagall snarled. "You taught them that rubbish!"

"What happened?" Snape turned to Dumbledore although he suspected that asking was going to cost him the quiet part of breakfast.

"It's that spell your apprentice used for the calendar. The one that makes objects react differently to certain spells. It seems that Filius was more successful with his teachings than he thought. We've had a plethora of spells going awry all over the school."

"What kind of spells?" Snape asked in spite of himself.

"Well, when Miss Granger used a spell to apply a hair potion this morning the bottle started talking to her in Mr Malfoy's voice. The poor girl is traumatized." The headmaster pointed at the Gryffindor table with a subtle move of his fork. And really, Granger looked a lot paler than usual.

"Another incident involved Miss Chang's alarm clock which now shrieks at the top of its lungs whenever the girl tries to turn it off. – Yes, yes, I know a clock doesn't have lungs but you get the picture."

"Was there any incident in Slytherin I don't know of?" Snape asked as he buttered his toast.

"Now that you ask, no! Only Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were affected."

"Ha!" McGonagall joined the conversation. "You! You wanted to cause trouble for the other houses and gave them additional lessons!"

"And why would I teach students other than my own in my free time?" Snape sneered back. "And if I decided to do so, why would I refuse Hufflepuff the same courtesy?"

"You always hated Hufflepuffs."

"Who hates Hufflepuffs?" shrieked the head of said house, causing the Great Hall to fall silent.

"Nobody hates Hufflepuffs," drawled Snape with a roll of his eyes. "Everybody knows that they are all fluffy and cute and loveable."

"I will give you fluffy and cute and loveable," raged the witch. She was very defensive of her students.

"Is that an offer?" Snape wiggled his brows at her.

"Don't speak like that to our Head of House!" Ernie Macmillan cried from the Hufflepuff table.

"Two points from Hufflepuff!" sneered Snape. "For talking disrespectfully to a teacher."

"Five points to Hufflepuff for defending your head of house!" cried Sprout.

"Five points from Hufflepuff for glaring disrespectfully at a teacher," Snape countered.

"Ten points to Hufflepuff for exemplary chivalry!" Sprout was not ready to back down.

"Ten points from Slytherin and Hufflepuff for childish behaviour and setting a bad example to the students!" Dumbledore interfered before Snape could take more points from the badgers.

"You can't take points from teachers!" the two teachers chorused.

"I can and I just have. I'm the headmaster." Dumbledore pointed out. "Now, Severus, why don't you open that advent calendar of yours to give everybody something more pleasant to talk about?"

The potions master growled. He hadn't had his cup of coffee yet after all. After a stern glare from his superior, he rose to his feet with a sigh and reached for the goblet holding the envelopes. Finding the envelope with the number three was easy, as it lay on the very top of the heap.

Everybody waited with baited breath to hear Snape announce who was to open the envelope but nothing happened.

"Well?" Dumbledore asked.

"There is no name on it." Snape shrugged.

"The hat!" a first year at the Ravenclaw table cried. "You need to wear the hat!"

Snape sighed and put on the hat. As soon as he touched the envelope again, ornate golden letters formed under the number three.

"This window is for, "Snape hesitated. "Hufflepuff house." He glared at Sprout who hurried to stick out her tongue at him. "It says that Susan Bones is to open the window on behalf of the house."

The girl in question walked up to the head table to cheers from her housemates. Once she got up there Snape held out the envelope to her, just a little too high for her to reach it comfortably. Miss Bones was not scared of the potions master though. With a fierce glare, she snatched the envelope from him and took it back to her house table.

Once the girl opened the envelope there was the by then usual gush of sparkles. Once again it moved over the table like it had done with Slytherin the day before. Only this time it was an exquisite table cloth that appeared out of thin air. It was white with small Hufflepuff crests strewn about the whole table.

The Hufflepuffs oohed and aahed over the new addition to their table and some girls caressed the closest crests with awe.

"It's beautiful!" cried Sprout. "A worthy addition to our house table! Severus, you must thank your apprentice on our behalf!"

"I shall do so," Snape replied solemnly, their earlier difference forgotten.

"At least this will not cause anybody to teach the students crazy spells," McGonagall snapped. Once again, another house had been preferred to her own.

"You didn't call those spells crazy when I said two out of three students to master them were from your house," Flitwick retorted.

"I didn't know then what kind of mischief was going to cause!"

"Really, not you two, too," Dumbledore interfered.

"Can we have coffee now?" asked Snape.

"Now that is a splendid idea!" the headmaster took it upon himself to fill his teachers' cups. He cast a spell at the coffee pot and shrieked when the pot – instead of filling the cups – floated above the teachers and drenched them in coffee. "This nonsense has gone far enough!"

"Two out of three suspects are Gryffindors!" Snape pointed out. "Fifty points from Gryffindor!"

"We told you that more students must have mastered the spell," McGonagall cried. "Fifty points to Gryffindor to remedy this unjust accusation!"

"There were too many incidents to think there were only three culprits," Flitwick agreed. "Luckily so far nobody got hurt."

"Well, congratulations," Snape sneered. "You were more successful in your teaching than you thought. Since it is undisputed that it was you who taught them this nonsense, I suggest you take care of the problem."

"A splendid idea," cried Dumbledore and with that it was settled.

For the rest of the meal, Flitwick shot Snape murderous glances but the potions master ignored him in favour of enjoying his morning coffee. Finally!


	4. 4th of December

4

In spite of the busy day he had had – imagine the burner under his cauldron freezing over when he tried to light it magically! – Snape woke up bright and early. He even had time for a cup of coffee in his quarters. It was pure bliss and he wondered when he had stopped taking breakfast in his chambers. Ah, yes, that was when Dumbledore decided that Snape's summons by the Dark Lord where not frequent enough to buy him a late start in the morning.

Nevertheless, the coffee put him in a good mood and he decided to wash his hair before going up to the Great Hall. With the new hat, everybody was staring at his head after all. That warranted an extra treatment.

Whistling merrily – although he'd never admit that to a soul – Snape stepped into the shower. After enjoying the warm spray for a couple of minutes he summoned the shampoo bottle and nearly got a heart attack when said bottle informed him in Draco Malfoy's voice that it had no intention of letting itself be squeezed in the shower by him.

Snape was so furious he almost destroyed the poor bottle when he shot the spell to cancel the different-reaction-spell with too much violence. Never had the potions master washed his hair, dried and dressed himself so quickly in his life.

The students and teachers who were already there fell silent when the resident potions master and advent calendar opener arrived at the Great Hall in almost a run.

"This ends now!" Snape snarled to the hall at large. He slammed his new hat on the table in a dramatic gesture. "This morning I nearly died of a heart attack when my shampoo bottle talked back at me. – I heard that Weasley, 10 points from Gryffindor! – Headmaster, somebody must have used that blasted spell on the school's general supplies as there is no way they could have entered my quarters to charm the bottle there." He glared at the students at large. "I demand that the culprit comes forward and I refuse to open an advent calendar window before that has happened."

"But Severus, you can't do that!" cried Flitwick and McGonagall in unison. Both were hoping that their house was going to get some nice decoration for their house table.

"Watch me!" spat the potions master and reached for the bacon.

"What will you do if the culprit doesn't come forward?" asked Sprout. "Certainly you don't want to miss the calendar windows when your apprentice has put so much work into the whole thing!"

Snape made a show of cutting his bacon and taking another bite. The students and teachers waited with baited breath.

"Since we have started using magic on the general supplies," Snape dabbed his mouth with his napkin, "I thought I may join the fun. Some Veritaserum in the pumpkin juice supplies? Or maybe a hair colouring potion in the shampoo? Or how about a love potion in the tea? Personally, I like the Veritaserum idea." He reached for the black pudding.

"You wouldn't!" cried McGonagall.

"Why? Is there something you wish to keep secret?" Snape asked innocently. "Hmmm, even with Veritaserum one has to ask the right questions to get the whole truth. Well, I have some time to plan that, I'm sure I can come up with something helpful."

"The whole student body would expose their secrets! Albus, do something!" McGonagall was beside herself.

"Well, there's still the possibility that the person who is responsible for this chaos comes forward. I hope they don't take too much time. I want to see what's in today's window!" The headmaster said benignly.

The house tables erupted with hushed conversations. It took no more than 10 minutes for Terry Boot of Ravenclaw to come forward and confess. "I didn't mean anything bad by it," the boy assured his teachers. "I was so proud that I had mastered the spell! Professor Flitwick had said only three others had mastered it and I usually am not so good at spell casting. To be among the best four students of the whole school was something very special for me and I wanted to use the spell for something. And then I thought this was my opportunity to play a couple of pranks and not be caught."

"Ten points from Ravenclaw for those pranks," said Dumbledore. "As a punishment you will use those spelled shampoo bottles for the rest of the year. And ten points to Ravenclaw for mastering the spell!"

"What?" cried Snape. "You can't let him off that cheap!"

"But I just did," the headmaster pointed out. "He didn't mean any harm and nobody was hurt. Now, can you kindly open that calendar of yours?"

Snape harrumphed and made a show of taking his time looking for the correct envelope. When he touched it, writing appeared under the number four and the potions master smiled.

"This window is – for me!" he cried triumphantly.

He opened the envelope and watched as the by then customary whirlwind of pink sparks appeared and manifested in a live pink fairy. The fairy fluttered its wings and sat on the potions master's left shoulder. Once seated, it bowed to the hall and then started to sing a Christmas carol in a clear bell-like voice.

"Are you going to sing all day?" Snape asked, exasperated.

The fairy shook her head no and continued its song. Only when it was finished it replied. "I will sing until Christmas but I must not during lessons and when you want to sleep."

"What when I want to work?" Snape cried. He couldn't very well grade the students' essays with a singing fairy nearby.

"I can stay quiet for a while if you first sing a song with me," the fairy offered.

Snape sighed. This was going to be a long time until Christmas. The students cheered, and the fairy started another song. Hermione Granger from Gryffindor was the first one to join the small fairy in song but the other students quickly followed and the whole Great Hall sang a merry carol. Dumbledore was beside himself with joy and clapped his hands along. McGonagall conjured a bell which she rang when the song called for it, and Flitwick charmed the dishes to perform a happy little dance to the song.

Everybody was having fun and the little fairy was so excited that she rose high above Snape and conducted the impromptu choir.


	5. 5th of December

5

Snape woke to the sound of loud singing. With a groan he turned over and placed his pillow over his head.

It didn't help.

"I thought you were supposed to be quiet when I wanted to sleep!" he complained.

There was no answer, instead the singing increased in volume. And – hang on! – a second and a third voice joined the first.

Snape was out of bed in an instant. Throwing on his bath robe and pulling open the door to the living room was one smooth movement.

"What is going on here?" he bellowed.

Two house elves crouched as if he had slapped them. "Whimsy is most aggrieved…" the elf who usually served small snacks and cups of coffee to the potions master started.

"We are singing," the little pink fairy pointed out.

"You are not supposed to sing while I am sleeping!" Snape accused.

"We closed the door," the fairy informed the irate potions master. "It's not my fault that you are such a light sleeper. I have had customers who slept through me practicing with a whole choir."

"Since when do house elves sing anyway," Snape growled.

"They have beautiful voices. All they need is a little encouragement," the fairy stood her ground. "And you are not being helpful."

Snape took a deep breath to calm down. The apprentice wouldn't appreciate it if he strangled her gift. "These are my quarters. The only one who is encouraged to practice a hobby in here is me. If you want to sing with the house elves, go to the kitchens or wherever house elves go to sing."

"But I can't!" protested the fairy. "I'm assigned to you! I just thought since you are an unsinging crouch, I would do some good elsewhere while you were sleeping."

"Ha! So you did know I wanted to sleep!"

"Of course, that's why we closed the DOOR!" The fairy was getting really angry now. Her wings were fluttering wildly and she rose until she was nose to nose with the potions master. "You are the most uncooperative sourpuss I have ever met!"

"If I wanted to be called names early in the morning I'd have taken a wife!" Snape shouted at the top of his lungs.

"No wonder people feel the need to put a half continent between themselves and you!" the fairy shouted back.

"She gained her mastery and found a great job over there!" Snape roared.

The fairy turned around and fluttered her wings in his face. "If you want to believe that…" She harrumphed and landed between the two trembling house elves. "Anyway, you are awake and I am paid to sing for you when you are up. Let's go through the refrain again, shall we?"

"I think Whimsy should get a cup of coffee for master potions master before we continue," the female house elf pointed out. "It will take but a moment."

The elf was back in the blink of an eye. She put a steaming cup on the coffee table and brought a blanket for Snape's knees. "Why doesn't Professor Snape Sir sit down and listen?"

Snape snorted but obeyed. The first sip of coffee brought a pleasant surprise. A little dash of firewhiskey had been added to his cup and on closer inspection there was a star-shaped cookie on the saucer.

As soon as the potions master had taken his first sip, the fairy signalled the elves and the three started another round of "Jingle bells".

When Snape had finished his coffee and got up to get ready for the day, the fairy called an end to the little choir session and the elves disappeared.

"Would you like be to come to the shower and sing for you there?" the fairy offered.

"No!" Snape squeaked. "Don't you dare!"

"But I'm supposed to sing to you when you are awake!"

"Let's pretend I'm taking a nap in the shower, shall we?" Snape said hopefully.

The fairy rolled her eyes. "Krawuzi Kapuzi! You are difficult!"

"Kra-what?" Snape asked, puzzled.

"Krawuzi Kapuzi," the fairy repeated.

"Is that a spell? Are you using magic on me?"

The fairy giggled and it was a bell-like sound. "That's Viennese, silly! I am from Vienna, and we use it to express astonishment. It's not a spell. But maybe we could make it one. I'll have to think of it while you shower."

Snape was not sure it was a good thing that the fairy was thinking about creating a spell. Having created a few himself, he knew that it was a dangerous endeavour. On the other hand, it was also time consuming so there was little danger that she would come up with anything dangerous in the short time a shower would take. And as long as she thought about spells, she didn't try and thing to him in the bathroom.

A little later, Snape was showered and dressed and ready to go up to the Great Hall. The fairy sat on his left shoulder and sang "White Christmas" as he made his way up from the dungeons.

"May I borrow your wand?" the little creature asked as he entered the hall. "I think I have come up with a nice spell."

"Certainly not," Snape snapped. "You are not going to try out a new spell in a hall full of students. Also, I had no idea that fairies can use wands."

"I don't need a wand, silly," the fairy giggled, "and I tried it out while you were looking for socks. I want to know whether it will work for wand-users, too."

"Not in a hall full of underage children," Snape repeated.

"Okay," the fairy gave in and started "Feliz navidad".

Since he had already had his coffee, Snape decided to put the students and staff out of their misery and open the advent calendar window before he attempted to eat. Eating first had not worked very well the previous days anyway.

Without much ado, he donned his new hat and looked for the appropriate envelope before he even sat down.

"Good boy!" McGonagall purred beside him.

"Today's window is for Ravenclaw house!" Snape announced. "Miss Cho Chang is to open the window on behalf of the house."

Everybody clapped politely as the Ravenclaw seeker made her way to the head table, McGonagall pouted. Gryffindor still hadn't got anything.

Miss Chang opened the envelope and gasped when the usual pink sparks whooshed past her. This time the sparks settled over the table rather quickly and instead of moving to and fro, they moved up and down a couple of times before they manifested in audaciously lopsided stacks of pink books decorated with twigs of mistletoe and holly.

The whole house gasped as one.

Luna Lovegood was the first one to get up and take one of the books. "This one is about gnargles!" she squealed.

The other Ravenclaws followed suite and really, those books were not only for decoration purposes but real books! "Cheering charms!" a girl cried. "Astronomy!" another announced. "Quidditch trick moves!"

"What a thoughtful gift!" squealed Flitwick.

"I shall thank my apprentice when I see her," Snape offered.

"Oh, yes, yes, please do that!" the small professor cried before he joined his students at the Ravenclaw table to look at their new books.

"I really hope it is Gryffindor's turn tomorrow," McGonagall admitted.

"You forget that tomorrow is St. Nick's," Dumbledore pointed out. "Gryffindor may have to wait a little longer."

"The longer the wait the sweeter the reward," Sprout said consolingly.

"Why don't we sing a song to cheer you up?" offered the fairy from Snape's shoulder. "How about 'Joy to the World'?" She didn't wait for an answer but started the song immediately. With a few flutters of her pink wings, she rose above Snape's seat and conducted the students.

One by one, the children started to sing and when they reached the end of the song, the fairy started another and then another.

Snape ignored the singing in favour of a hearty breakfast. Only when he had finished his last bite of banana, did he wave down the fairy. "You have to stop here or the children will go to their lessons hungry," he pointed out.

The fairy nodded and at the end of the song she clapped her hands excitedly. "That was wonderful!" she squealed. "We must repeat that tomorrow, but now tuck in!"

Many students muttered that yes, they had to repeat that, but soon the sounds of cutlery on porcelain was the only sound to be heard.


	6. 6th of December

6

The next morning, Snape woke to blissfully songfree quarters. Within two days, the fairy had achieved him looking forward to lessons and grading sessions. True, the little creature had an angelic voice but if you had to hear her sing for hours on end, it could easily drive you up the walls.

Having learned from the day before, Snape went into the living room and called for Whimsy. "I'd like a cup of coffee once I am out of the shower, and while you are at it, bring a sandwich or two," the potions master ordered.

It was very nice to find a small snack waiting when the potions master left the bedroom ready for the day ten minutes later. He sat with a contented sigh and started to eat. After two bites he looked up and saw Whimsy standing in front of him, wringing her hands.

"Is there anything you need?" he asked, irritated.

"Whimsy was wondering, Sir," the elf piped, "whether she is allowed to free Gloria."

"Who is Gloria?" Snape was puzzled.

"The singing fairy, Sir!"

"Free her? Where is she?"

"She is caught in Sir's spell!"

It took Snape a moment to catch on but then he was out of his chair so quickly that he knocked over his cup. He hurried back into the bedroom and really, the little fairy was stuck to the wall between the cupboard and the door to his bathroom. When the door was open, she was obscured from view by it. The little creature was fighting against her bonds, and she was clearly livid.

Snape freed her with a wordless spell.

"You are a nasty man!" accused the fairy as soon as she was free. She flew up to Snape and slapped him with all her might. Given her size or lack thereof, the slap was not very hard.

Snape grabbed the little creature by the neck of her pink dress and pulled her away from his face. "If you are going to hit me, I'll stick you back to the wall," he threatened.

"That would be just like you, wouldn't it?" the fairy – Gloria – raged. "I was stuck there for hours!"

"Serves you right for trying to take my wand," Snape smirked.

"I just wanted to try my new spell. You said I could only when there were no students nearby and there aren't any in your bedroom!"

"And my bedroom was the only student-free part of the castle you could think of?" Snape glowered. "If you wanted to try the spell with my wand you should have told me and we could have done it together. Preferably with another wizard who still had their wand present. Hmmmm…"

Snape turned on his heel, fairy in tow and walked back to the living room. Whimsy had replaced his cup with a new one and the potions master took a deep sip. "Whimsy, go to the Slytherin common room and tell Mr Malfoy to meet me in my classroom immediately." The house elf disappeared and Snape set out for the classroom in long strides after another long sip of coffee.

Malfoy arrived two minutes later. "You are lucky I never take points from my own house or your tardiness would not go unpunished," Snape informed the blond.

"Tardiness? That elf found me in the shower. I think I was pretty quick, or did you expect me to come naked?"

"Don't talk back," Snape admonished. "I called you here to offer you the opportunity to be part in the development of a new spell."

"I'm not your guinea pig!" cried the boy.

"Nonsense," Snape made a dismissive gesture. "If I needed a guinea pig, I'd have called for a Gryffindor. Potter, preferably. No, my fairy wants to borrow your wand."

"I will not give up my wand!" Malfoy protested.

Snape ignored the outburst and summoned the wand to his hand wordlessly. "If so, you should protect it from being taken," he pointed out with a raised brow. "I will teach you a spell to prevent this in the future, if you let my fairy borrow it for now."

Malfoy thought about it for a moment. "She will not damage it?" he asked to be sure.

"Of course not!" piped the fairy.

"Deal then. She may have it for two minutes and you teach me the spell."

"Ten!" Snape countered.

"Five!" Malfoy offered.

"Deal!" interrupted the fairy.

"Excuse me," snarled Snape, "you can't just cry deal when two Slytherins are bargaining!"

"But I just did. Now hand me that wand!" The fairy stretched out her small hand demandingly.

Snape handed her the wand – which she had to hold using both hands and whose weight pulled her down a good foot – and the fairy pointed it at one of the student tables.

The potions master was quick to draw his own wand to be ready to interfere if something went wrong.

"Krawuzi Kapuzi!" the fairy cried and the table turned into an elegant desk with a marble top and golden inkwells.

"Is this what the spell is supposed to do?" asked Snape.

"We learned how to do that in Transfiguration," Malfoy pointed out.

"But I didn't transfigure it," the fairy pointed out. "The spell is supposed to do something astonishing." She pointed the wand at another table which turned into a pig when she uttered her spell. The animal squeaked and left at top speed through the open door.

"Hasn't anybody taught you to close the door behind you?" Snape admonished Malfoy. "Now it escaped."

"It won't get too far," Malfoy pointed out. "The main doors are closed during the winter."

"But now I have to explain to the headmaster why we need to catch a pig," Snape muttered.

"Krawuzi Kapuzi!" the fairy cried and another table turned to dust.

"Your time is up!" cried Snape and took the wand from the pink creature.

"I was sure I had two more minutes," Gloria pouted.

"No," Malfoy hurried to say as he took his wand back, "time's up. I'll come to your office after dinner to learn that spell, Sir."

"After dinner is agreeable," Snape nodded. "Now, let's got up to breakfast."

"We were wondering whether you were going to turn up at all," McGonagall greeted Snape when he sat down beside her.

"You are still hoping that today Gryffindor will get something to decorate the table," Snape pointed out, "but I'm telling you that I know my apprentice. She loves Saint Nicholas. She won't use today's window for anything but him."

"Why don't we find out?" McGonagall suggested.

Snape decided that it was best to comply if he wanted to eat in peace. So he got up, donned his hat and rummaged for the correct envelope.

"Today's window is for the whole school," he read out with a triumphant smirk at McGonagall. "The headmaster is to open it on behalf of everybody." He handed the envelope to his superior.

Dumbledore got up with dignity and stroked his white beard leisurely. "Thank you, Severus," he said benignly. "What a pleasure!" He looked at the assembled students with a smile and then made a show of opening the envelope very slowly.

The sparks shooting out of the envelope whirled around the headmaster until the man was hidden in a sparkling pink cloud. When the sparks died down, Dumbledore reappeared clad in a bishop's attire, mitre and all. In his hand was a big sack.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" the apprentice's voice urged. "Hand out the sweets! But only to the good children!"

In the end, everybody got their sweets. Snape himself was given a small bag of hazelnut chocolates, his favourite treat for a cold winter evening.

And even the Gryffindors were happy although their table was still undecorated.


	7. 7th of December

7

The next morning, Snape got up very early and very suddenly. With one smooth move he sat in his bed and had his wand pulled out from under the pillow. The fairy got out one single bell-like tone before she was hit by a spell.

"Aaaah!" purred Snape. "Silence! See, that was not so difficult."

The little creature glared daggers at the potions master and gestured at her throat angrily.

The potions master smirked and made his way to the bathroom, angrily gesturing fairy in tow. With a merry whistle he closed the door into Gloria's face.

After an enjoyable lengthy shower, Snape came out of the bathroom to be hit in the face by one of the small throw pillows he had on his couch.

"Ouch!" he cried although he was more startled than hurt. The pillow was not very big and the fairy herself was very light and small and had therefore trouble moving the pillow at all, let alone smacking it anywhere.

Gloria let go of the pillow the moment it had hit its target and fluttered in front of Snape, her arms akimbo.

"We are up early," Snape pointed out. "Why don't we go and brew something nice before breakfast."

Whistling again, he made his way to his private laboratory, the fairy fluttering after him and shaking her fists at him threateningly.

Once in the lab, Snape rummaged in his notes until he found the recipe for a Christmassy air freshener. Small vials of it were going to make splendid tokens for those colleagues he didn't want to buy for but who insisted on getting him something every year.

He liked brewing this because the fumes alone made his lab and quarters sweet with vanilla and cinnamon. And it was also one of the quicker brews in his collection of recipes. He had, of course, more sophisticated potions for Christmas time, there was even one which made the room smell differently to every person according to their tastes but Sinistra's yearly "Grumpy Teacher" cup was not worth that much effort.

While the potions master was collecting Christmas spices and several stabilizing ingredients from his shelves, the fairy was fighting to leaf through his notes. When Snape returned to his cauldron where by then a base of sunflower oil was reaching the correct temperature, she was pointing at the topmost sheet of parchment insistently.

"Throat balm? In your dreams! All you would do is sing at me every waking moment!" Snape closed his notebook with a snap, almost squashing his winged companion in the process. That said, he turned to his cauldron and began adding the proper ingredients while at the same time stirring with his left hand.

SPLASH!

"What did you do?" shrieked the potions master. Something had been flung into his cauldron with gusto. What if the fairy had used – if you could call flinging using – something that made the brew volatile?

Snape had barely finished the thought when the potions already began to bubble dangerously. He got but a moment's warning before the contents of the cauldron went up in a surprisingly soft but violent explosion.

Snape was drenched in hot potion.

The potions master grabbed his wand and cast cooling and cleaning spells on himself. "You are going to pay for this!" he muttered between spells. "Just wait!" Once he was satisfied with his spellwork, he looked around and nearly got a heart attack.

There, at the edge of the table lay the fairy on her back, motionless and with her eyes closed.

"Gloria!" cried Snape and rushed to the small creature. He poked her gently with his index.

After two pokes the fairy twitched and after three her eyes flew open and she shook in an eerily silent fit of laughter.

"You faked that!" roared Snape.

The pink menace got up and batted her wings to hoover in front of Snape's face. Angrily she pointed at her throat again.

"I'm going up for breakfast!" Snape announced. With a couple of quick spells, the mess of the explosion disappeared. All the fairy could do was follow the potions master out of the dungeons.

When they neared the Great Hall, Gloria overtook Snape and zoomed into the hall, right to the head table where she landed beside the headmaster's tea cup. Once she had Dumbledore's attention, she began to try and explain her predicament without words.

"Ah, charade!" cooed the headmaster. "One of my favourite games! My brother is the true expert but the whole family enjoyed a game or two on Christmas Eve. Go ahead, little lady." He looked at the pink fairy with interest.

The fairy made a show of pointing at Snape's usual seat.

"That's easy, Albus," McGonagall made herself heard. "Severus."

"I knew that," growled the headmaster.

The fairy stomped to McGonagall and took her tea spoon out of her hand.

"You are taking something away," Dumbledore guessed.

"Severus takes away," McGonagall agreed and the fairy nodded vigorously. Then she proceeded to move her mouth and pointed at her throat.

"Severus took away your voice!" Flitwick caught up first. He was not the Head of Ravenclaw house for nothing.

"You poor thing!" cried Dumbledore. He pointed at the fairy and cast a Finite but the little creature remained silent. "What did he use?" wondered the headmaster. "Poppy, could you look at this?"

While the school matron was looking at her tiny patient, the resident potions master had reached the hall. First there was stunned silence but then the murmurs started, mixed with giggles and laughter.

"Is there something wrong?" Snape asked when he reached his seat.

"Indeed, there is something wrong!" raged Madam Pomfrey. She poked Snape's chest with her right index. "YOU gave this poor thing a sore throat!"

"I could not stand the singing anymore," Snape admitted in a small voice.

"And a simple silencing spell wouldn't have done? You had to go and make the poor thing sick, eh?" Pomfrey glared at the potions master. "I'm disgusted." At that moment a house elf popped into existence beside her and held up a small vial. "Pinky has the potion nurse sent her for," the elf squeaked.

The school matron administered a tiny drop to the fairy. Gloria fluttered her wings gratefully and a minute later she was high up in the air, almost at the rafters and singing "All I want for Christmas is you!". The students joined in enthusiastically.

After three repetitions of the song, McGonagall leaned closer to Dumbledore. "Do I recall reading that some muggle magazine had this at the top of the most annoying Christmas song list?"

"I wouldn't be surprise," Dumbledore whispered back.

"She does this to spite me!" Snape complained.

"And you deserve it," Flitwick piped up. "You stole her voice! You Grinch!"

"But the Grinch has green hair not blond," Dumbledore pointed out.

"Blond?" squeaked Snape.

McGonagall was clearly enjoying herself as she transfigured a spoon into a handheld mirror and passed it to Snape.

"GLORIA!" roared the potions master when he saw that his usually raven locks were blond and curly as would have been fit for an angel.

"You called?" the fairy fluttered in front of Snape, just out of his reach.

"What did you do to my hair?" raged Snape.

"Moi?" the little creature asked innocently. "I didn't do a thing. You exploded that cauldron…"

The students murmured excitedly. Their oh so strict potions master had exploded a cauldron? If any of them had done that it would have meant detention!

Snape decided that distraction was in order. He quickly put on his pink Santa hat – it covered part of his blond curls which was a good thing – and held up the correct envelope. "Gryffindor!" he cried. "Today's window is for Gryffindor and Harry Potter is to open the envelope!"

Potter had the cheek to come up to the head table very slowly.

"We don't have all day, Potter!" cried Snape.

"It's Saturday, Professor," the boy wonder pointed out. "We do, in fact, have all day." He took the envelope and opened it.

The now customary pink sparks whirled to the Gryffindor table and when they disappeared the table was decorated with sprigs of holly and small golden lions were strutting to and fro. Each lion was wearing a red Santa hat to promote the Christmas spirit.

"Very nice," cooed McGonagall. "Severus you have to thank…"

"I'm going to throttle her for burdening me with that menace!" Snape interrupted the witch. "My hair is ruined!"

"Nonsense," giggled the fairy. "Give it a couple of days and everything will be back to normal."

"DAYS?" Snape roared.

"Keep calm and have coffee," Dumbledore advised and handed his upset potions master a cup of the brew.

It was going to be a long Saturday.


	8. 8th of December

8

On the 8th of December, Severus Snape woke to silence. Knowing that he was sharing his quarters with a fairy for the time being that was not a good thing. They had gone to bed angry the night before. The little pink menace kept shouting at him for giving her a sore throat and Snape countered with complaints about his now blonde hair.

What was she up to now?

Snape was up in an instant. He looked in the bathroom, in the living room and even under his bed. Could it be? Had she left?

His hopes were destroyed by a loud crash coming from his lab. The potions master rushed to his sanctuary at top speed, his nightshirt fluttering behind him.

"What have you broken?" he snarled at the fairy angrily when he spotted her dragging a crystal vial over the table with all her might.

The fairy abandoned the vial immediately and rose into the air with a couple of flaps. "You are up!" she squealed. She fell into song promptly.

Surrounded by the merry tunes of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas", Snape walked around the room to see what had been damaged. He spotted it as soon as he walked around the table.

"The snowbell pollen?" Snape cried. "Do you have any idea how expensive that is? Dumbledore will have my hide!" The he smirked. "Or better: he'll have your hide!"

"I didn't do a thing," the fairy interrupted her song to defend herself. "It was you who stored such an expensive ingredient like a beginner!"

"I don't have to store my ingredients in any special way since I am the only one allowed into this room!" Snape shouted. "Out now and don't you dare enter ever again unless I invite you. And don't get your hopes up, it will not happen!"

The potions master stomped back to his bedroom, followed by a sullen fairy. A glare sent her back to the living room when she tried to follow him into the bathroom. He was not going to be sung at in the shower, how often did he have to repeat that!

After a quick shower and putting on some clothes, Snape went up to the Great Hall for breakfast. On his way he met some of his Slytherins, Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode. The girls made polite conversation with their head of house and he participated equally politely. It was heart-warming to see them prepare for their roles of pureblood wives in which making small-talk was going to be one of their most important duties (apart from birthing and raising pureblood babies).

"Good morning, Albus," Snape greeted the headmaster as he sat down beside the man at the head table. "I'm afraid I have bad news."

"Is that so?" Dumbledore smiled benignly. "What a pity. What happened?"

"This klutz broke my vial of pollen of snowbell," he pointed an accusing finger at the fairy. "You know it's quite expensive."

"I don't recall any student projects that require snowbell pollen," Dumbledore mused.

"It was from my private stores," Snape pointed out. He raised his hand to stop Dumbledore before the older wizard could say anything, "and I use it regularly to brew various potions for the hospital wing, mainly medicines which prevent our muggleborns to kill the whole student body with some muggle disease like measles or chickenpox. So don't even think about suggesting I pay for the replacement."

"I'd never think of it," Dumbledore said as if the thought hadn't been on the tip of his tongue mere moments ago. "Order what you need and please go through the student cupboards before you do. I don't want to pay for the delivery twice if I don't have to."

Snape promised to do that and they enjoyed a quiet breakfast. The Gryffindor students were having fun watching their deco lions chase each other on their table and with the worst troublemakers occupied, the rest of the students were harmless.

As the meal was nearing its end – Flitwick had engaged the fairy in a discussion about levitation – Snape got up to open his advent calendar window.

He rummaged through the heap of envelopes, pink hat firmly in place, and held it up triumphantly when he finally found the correct one.

"Today's window is," he hesitated as he saw the name, "for the Dark Lord."

"You'd better go and deliver it then," Dumbledore advised. "If you are not back for dinner, I'll send out a search party."

"If you give him until dinner, you can have them search for my dead body," Snape muttered. "Come Gloria," he ordered as he made his way out of the Great Hall.

"What do you need the girl for?" McGonagall asked threateningly, she was a great defender of female rights.

"If I'm going to face the Dark Lord with blonde hair, she will do it with me," Snape said matter-of-factly.

That was why merely five minutes later, Snape was knocking at the door of Malfoy Manor where he knew the Dark Lord was going to spend advent. The Malfoys had a very big kitchen and the Dark Lord loved baking gingerbread men with his followers. Snape just hoped that today was not baking day.

It was not.

"Severus!" cried the Dark Lord as he spotted the man from his seat beside a huge Christmas tree. "Come join me for a mug of cocoa! We baked gingerbread men just yesterday."

"Ah," purred Snape as he took the offered seat. "Fresh they are best!" He bit off the head of the gingerbread man he had been given. "Delicious, my Lord!" He broke a piece from the cookie's arm and handed it up to Gloria who was sitting on his left shoulder.

"Now who is this?" the dark wizard asked and Lucius, who was sitting at the Dark Lord's other side, clearly wondered the same.

"This is my advent fairy," Snape explained. "She was in my advent calendar window. She sings."

Gloria didn't wait for an explanation but fluttered up in the air and started a song of "Joy to the World". When she sang "the lord has come", the Dark Lord clapped excitedly.

"Splendid!" the dark wizard cried when the fairy finished the song and bowed in mid-air. "You have another advent calendar?" he then asked. Gloria sat back down on Snape's shoulder.

"Yes, my Lord, and today's window is for you." Snape handed over the pink envelope.

Lucius and the Dark Lord both smirked. "Three guesses who gave you that calendar. – Is she also responsible for your new hairstyle, which suits you splendidly, I may add?" the Dark Lord said as he turned the envelope in his hands.

"No, the fairy is responsible for that," Snape sighed. "The little menace dropped random stuff into my cauldron."

"Random stuff, ha!" Lucius and the fairy said in unison.

"What is the chance to get such … luscious … results when you throw random stuff into a cauldron," drawled the blond lord of the manor at his fellow Slytherin.

Snape glared at the fairy when realisation dawned to him. "You did that on purpose!" he cried.

The fairy shrugged. "I have my orders."

"Now," the Dark Lord interrupted, "let's see what is in store for me."

He opened the envelope and followed the whirlwind of pink sparks excitedly as they first did a lap around the room and then surrounded his chair.

"Dumbledore will be green with envy!" the Dark Lord squealed as he held out his newly besocked feet when the sparks disappeared. "Look, Lucius!"

On said feet he was now wearing woollen socks in light blue. Elaborate white snowflakes were falling from the gaiters to his toes. The wizard wiggled his toes and the snowflakes swirled. Only when he held his feet still did they resume their slow fall.

"Very nice, my Lord," Lucius Malfoy looked a bit envious himself. "They look warm, too."

"They are, indeed, very warm. I bet I could go out on a torturing spree for hours without freezing in these."

"You haven't finished your cocoa, my Lord," Snape pointed out. The Dark Lord rarely went out on any sprees alone and he really didn't feel like going out to torture some unsuspecting muggles in the cold.

"Right," the Dark Lord conceded. "This is not the time to go around and frolic in the cold. It's the time to enjoy a warm drink with friends. Do you think that fairy of yours could sing us another carol?"

And the fairy could.


	9. 9th of December

9

"No!"

"But you have to get up! Everybody wants you to open the advent calendar and it's unhealthy to work on an empty stomach!"

"Who says I'm going to work!" Snape pulled the blanket over his face.

The fairy tried to get it off him but of course she was to light to move it.

Seconds after the little creature had given up, the room resounded from Snape's new snores.

It was understandable though. They had returned from Malfoy Manor in the small hours after an impromptu party. Things had been going well as long as the fairy had sung her Christmas carols but then Lucius had asked her if she knew other songs as well, and Merlin did she know songs!

First the Dark Lord had called for more cocoa and for firewhiskey to spike the cocoa with. Then Lucius had called for cigars, and when the fairy had started a song about a person called Lily the Pink, the Dark Lord and Lucius had decided that singing along was in order. Then the Dark Lord had ordered Severus to at least join for the chorus. After that he had decided that they needed more voices and had summoned the whole inner circle of deatheaters.

The Malfoy house elves had provided them with finger food in record time, Lucius raided the wine cellar and his house bar, and within about ten minutes a party was in full swing.

The Dark Lord insisted they sang the song about Lily the Pink repeatedly. He crucioed Crabbe senior when the man took a bite of a canapé mere moments before he was supposed to join the chorus.

"My orders will not be taken lightly!" raged the megalomaniac. "You can stuff your face later!"

Of course they had to start the song again after Crabbe's screams had died down.

It was almost three in the morning when Snape was finally able to take his leave, fairy in tow.

Said fairy sighed. What was she to do? It could not be helped, she needed assistance. Therefore, she flew up to the Great Hall – it took her almost a half hour to make a house elf open the doors to Snape's quarters for her – and informed Dumbledore.

"Yes, serving two masters tends to be tiring," admitted the headmaster. "Normally I'd say let him sleep but seeing that we'd probably have a rebellion at hand if the window was not opened, we'll have to take a different way of action."

"Drink that," he ordered his potions master five minutes later. It had been no problem for the old wizard to enter Snape's quarters. Wards and passwords didn't stop the headmaster.

"Let me sleep!" groaned Snape.

"Drink that, it's an order!" Dumbledore insisted. He handed Snape the hangover potion and a dose of pepper-up. "And then take a shower. You reek of … actually I don't even want to imagine what that smell is."

"The Dark Lord's special Christmas punch." Snape informed his superior as he stumbled past the man to his bathroom. "The main ingredient is firewhiskey."

"I do believe you," Dumbledore sat on the bed to wait for Snape.

A quarter hour later, the two wizards sat at the head table and the headmaster poured his spy a very generous helping of coffee.

Snape took a couple of sips before he got up and reached for the advent calendar goblet.

"Today's window is for Seamus Finnigan," he announced.

The Irish wizard came up to the head table and accepted the pink envelope proudly. It was not easy being a classmate of Harry Potter. You rarely got the limelight with the Gryffindor Golden boy in attendance.

"Thank you, Professor," Finnigan said and opened the envelope.

When the ensuing pink sparks had dissolved, the boy was holding a jumper in his hands. First he looked a little disappointed – which youth likes to be presented with clothes? – but then he held it out to look at it closer. There was a picture of wand firing sparks on the garment and the writing "BLASTER".

"Wicked!" cried Seamus. He proceeded to put the jumper on and all his housemates agreed that it was, indeed, wicked.

Snape sat back down as the young Gryffindor returned to his house table and reached for the platter of waffles.

"Severus," Dumbledore stopped him. "After a party like that you need minerals and salts, not sugar. Have some bacon!"

With a sigh Snape reached for the bacon instead. Not that he really needed the salts and minerals, the hangover potion had taken care of that, but he simply was too tired to argue with the headmaster.

"It's scandalous how young people spend their time partying when they know they have to work the next day," McGonagall's lips were pressed into a thin line. "What were you thinking, Severus!" Of course the deputy headmistress had overheard the fairy talk to Dumbledore when she had fetched him to help her wake Snape.

"I want to see you tell the Dark Lord that you cannot have another cup of punch with him because you have to teach first year potions the next morning," snorted Snape.

"You just say that to look like a hero," McGonagall snapped. "The man has been here for a Christmas party every year for who knows how many years and he seems perfectly reasonable."

"That's because Santa threatened to not bring him any present ever again if he didn't behave at Hogwarts." Snape rolled his eyes. It was common knowledge after all.

"Whatever," McGonagall made a dismissive gesture. "We have to keep in mind the example you set for the children. You acted irresponsible."

"Whatever," Snape mimicked the witch. "I really don't have time for this. You will excuse me."

Once back in his quarters, he ordered a big plate of waffles with whipped cream and blueberries from the house elves. The fairy sat beside his plate and Snape fed her a bite from time to time. She had been great at the party and deserved a reward after all.

Later that day, Seamus Finnigan proved during his potions lesson that he had been the right recipient for a jumper saying Blaster. Snape gave him detention with Filch and wrote a note to the caretaker that the Gryffindor was to clean the potions classroom without magic.

Other than that, the day was blissfully quiet. Even the fairy sensed that Snape need this because she refrained from singing all day. But maybe she was only hoarse after singing so long at the deatheater party.


	10. 10th of December

10

There was snow that night. There had been some in previous nights but that night there were tons of it. When Snape crossed the Entrance Hall on his way to breakfast, he watched Hagrid slip in through the front doors. There was so much snow that it almost reached up to the waist of the half-giant.

"Good morning, Professor," Hagrid greeted. Although he had been a professor for years now, he never stopped addressing his colleagues like he had done in the past when he was merely a gamekeeper.

"Good morning, Hagrid!" Snape and Gloria replied in unison. And Gloria added "That looks fabulous out there!"

"Fabulous" was not the word Snape had thought of but seemingly Hagrid had. "It does!" the man agreed. "The lawn looks like it's covered with a blanket. I love the snow when it is all clean and fresh."

Together they proceeded to the Great Hall.

"How much?" Dumbledore asked Hagrid as the half-giant sat down on his usual chair (which had a charm on it to hold the man's exceptional weight).

"About waist-high," Hagrid reported. "You can't send the kids to the greenhouses. And Care of Magical Creatures is not really an option either."

"They can have a reading period instead," McGonagall suggested.

Dumbledore stroked his long white beard, in thought. "Where would be the fun in that?" he mused.

"Excuse me, but reading is fun!" Snape pointed out. He longingly thought of the potions magazine he had read yesterday evening. There had been a very interesting article on the use of grindylow blood and he had not been able to finish it because he had still been tired after the Dark Lord's party.

"Yes, but so is snow," Dumbledore looked at his potions master benignly over his halfmoon spectacles. "And snow cannot be found on a daily basis in the library. I think a free morning is in order."

Snape wanted to protest but then he remembered that he had his least favourite class first thing on Tuesday. Gryffindor and Slytherin seventh years. Potter, Malfoy and their entourage were in that course and it rarely ended without at least a medium catastrophe. The desire to sabotage each other's potion was just too great in that class.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Snape admitted, smiling as he thought of missing that particular class. The headmaster looked suspiciously at him but didn't challenge the potions master's easy compliance.

"I shall announce it at the end of breakfast," Dumbledore informed his teachers and then reached for the waffles.

At the end of the meal, Snape got up to open the advent calendar first. Once the students knew that they got the morning off, there was going to be pandemonium.

"Today's window is for … everybody!" Snape read out "and the headmaster is to open it on our behalf."

Dumbledore took the envelope from his hand graciously and opened it without much ado.

The pink sparks circled the whole hall this time.

When they dissolved, heaps of things were scattered in the aisles between the tables.

There were skates, sledges, skis and shovels. There were buckets, scarfs, carrots and Snape guessed there were lumps of coal somewhere.

What a happy coincidence! The calendar had given them everything the children were going to need for a morning of playing in the snow.

"Wonderful," cried Dumbledore. "I was just going to announce that this morning lessons were cancelled but since we have so many things to try out in the snow, I think all day would be better."

The students cheered and Snape quickly went mentally through his timetable. Third years. Hmmmm. Yes, those were good enough to survive a week without practical potions. He smiled.

"We'll meet outside," Dumbledore ordered. "Bring what you want to use and please be outside no later than in a half hour!"

There was a rush for the skis and sledges. Nobody wanted the skates because after a night of heavy snowfalls, one would have to clean part of the lake before skating.

Since the ice was going to be as good as student-free, Snape reached for a pair of skates before he went down to his quarters for his winter cloak, scarf and knitted hat. The hat was pink since his apprentice had made it for him a couple of years ago.

"I want to play in the snow, too!" pouted the fairy.

"I didn't say you couldn't," Snape pointed out.

"But I don't have any warm clothes," cried the little creature.

Snape thought about it for a moment. "I will shrink something for you if you promise not to sing in the evening," he bargained. He wasn't the head of Slytherin for nothing after all.

"Deal!" cried the fairy. "But I get something pink!"

"I don't own any pink winter cloak but that hat!" Snape pointed out.

The fairy rolled her eyes. "Are you a wizard or what?"

Snape blushed. He chose one of his older cloaks. One spell shrunk it to fit the fairy, another put holes for the wings in it and a third changed the colour. "There," he snapped. "Content?"

"You are the best fairy-cloak maker I know," the fairy blew him a kiss and put on her new cloak. "What about boots?"

Snape didn't own a spare pair of boots he was ready to shrink so he rather transfigured two snippets of parchment. Of course the boots were pink, too. The fairy looked very pleased.

"Do you want me to shrink skates for you?" Snape offered on their way up from the dungeons.

"No, thank you," Gloria refused. "I think I'll stick to flying and snowball-throwing."

About half the school was already outside when they stepped out of the doors. "Scarf, hat, gloves?" Flitwick asked as they stepped outside. "Oh, it's you, Severus. Some of Minerva's students tried to go outside without a cloak."

"Let me guess who," Snape rolled his eyes.

"Yes, those." Flitwick mirrored the potions master's eye roll.

Somebody had already made a path down to the lake and when Snape arrived there he saw with dread that Potter, Malfoy and their cronies were the ones who had chosen to spend the day on the ice.

"Professor!" cried Potter. "We are going play ice hockey. Would you referee?"

"Certainly not, Potter," Snape snarled. "I was planning on figure skating."

"You figure skate, Sir?" The Granger girl clapped her hands excitedly. "Would you consider a round of pair skating with me?"

"I will not waste my time on a beginner," Snape said carefully.

"I had lessons when I was younger," Granger revealed. "Please, Sir? It is so hard to find a proper partner!"

That was true and if the girl really knew her skating figures it would have been foolish to refuse her.

"Why not, let's try it," Snape consented.

He cleaned off a decent area of ice and cast a spell which was going to turn any puck that entered figure skating territory into a penguin.

"Can you show us that cleaning spell, Sir?" Malfoy asked. It was not on the Hogwarts curriculum and the students had been working with shovels.

Snape ignored the boy. "Come here, Miss Granger," he ordered and held out his arms invitingly.

First they circled their little area of ice a couple of times. Snape used various steps and the girl mirrored his every move. Yes, that one knew how to skate!

For the next two hours Snape took them through routines of pirouettes, jumps – normal and thrown – and lifts.

Once they knew what to expect of the other, Snape conjured music and they danced. By then they had an audience of girls from all houses but the potions master did not mind. There was nothing wrong with a bit of figure skating.

They were just finishing a tango, when it happened. Snape had just thrown his partner for an Axel when a penguin materialised in front of the girl.

The audience shrieked. Gloria – who had been watching faithfully – cried a warning.

Snape had his wand out in the blink of an eye and vanished the poor bird.

Granger performed some accidental magic which was quite rare for a person her age. She hovered over the spot where the penguin had been.

"It is safe to come down now, Miss Granger," Snape pointed out. "The bird is gone." He glared at the boys who had irresponsibly shot a puck in their direction.

"I don't know how!" confessed the girl.

Snape cast every spell he could think of which might get the young Gryffindor back onto the ice but nothing worked. In the end, Gloria got Dumbledore who was skiing on the slope that led to Hagrid's house.

"What have you done now, Severus?" the old wizard asked, clearly not thrilled that he had to give up his skiing.

"Nothing," Snape snapped. "Miss Granger is in a bit of a predicament and nothing I tried helped. So maybe you could try and help her?"

Dumbledore tried Finite first and Snape was glad it didn't work because he hadn't thought of trying that. Then the headmaster went through a whole series of other spells but to no avail.

"I don't want to stay up here!" the girl lamented.

In the end it was Flitwick who came to the rescue. As a true Charms master he knew several anti-levitation charms.

By the time the girl was back down on the ice, it was time for lunch and the Hogwarts population went inside for some food.

"Shall we continue after lunch?" Granger asked.

"I wouldn't be averse to another waltz or two," Snape nodded.

"Wonderful!" cried the girl. "I'm looking forward to it!"

Of course, Snape didn't admit that he did, too. But truth to be told, he ate his lunch a little faster than usual.


	11. 11th of December

11

"Good morning!"

Once more, Snape had his wand out in an instant and barely managed to stop himself before he threw a hex.

"Mr Malfoy!" he snarled. "How often do I have to tell you not to startle me when I leave my quarters?"

The blond chuckled. "I have a wager with my father. He says he doesn't know anybody with more self-control than you. If you hex me, I'll get 5000 galleons extra for next summer. I'm planning a trip to Paris. So hex away."

Snape snorted. "5000 galleons? As far as I know that's your allowance for a whole year. It will be a sad year but then a little humility will not hurt you."

"You wound me, Sir," Malfoy fell into an easy trot beside his potions master. "I'm a Slytherin! If you do not hex me, I'll accompany my mother on a trip to Paris and give Father a week to do as he pleases at home. Of course I'd prefer my trip to Paris without motherly supervision." He chuckled.

"Well," Snape smirked. "If you give me one more heart attack, I shall volunteer to supervise your trip to Paris. Are we understood?"

Malfoy gulped. "Yes, Sir."

"I hope this childish bet was not the only reason you waited in front of my door," Snape added.

"Of course not," Malfoy hesitated. "I meant to ask whether you would teach me figure skating. Pansy has been nagging at me ever since she saw you perform that sitting pirouette with Granger."

Snape stopped. "And does Miss Parkinson know how to figure skate?"

"She made it sound like it."

"Then I suggest you ask her to teach you," Snape turned on his heal and continued up to the Great Hall. Gloria yelped when she nearly fell off his shoulder.

"But Sir!" Malfoy caught up with ease. "She can't be my teacher and partner at the same time! That would be awkward."

Snape stopped. Gloria had to hold onto one of his still blond locks to not fall. "What is in it for me?" the potions master snarled angrily. He didn't appreciate any extra work, even when it meant he had to do something he enjoyed.

"What do you want?"

Snape didn't have to think long. "You borrow this singing menace for a day!"

Gloria – who had been singing Silent Night at a very low voice – increased her volume of song dramatically and right beside Snape's ear. The potions master started and then covered the ear in question with his hand.

"I'm not sure it's a good idea," Malfoy mused.

"It's a splendid idea. We have a deal. We'll meet at the lake after lessons."

"I don't want to borrow her," Malfoy cried.

"I'll lend her to you for a week if you call the deal off," Snape smiled cruelly.

"A week? I'd go crazy. You can't mistreat a student like that!"

"I have every intention to."

"But she's annoying."

"She's right here!" shouted the fairy. She batted her wings angrily and flew off to the Great Hall.

When Snape and Malfoy arrived there, the whole student body was singing. Somebody – who sat on the headmaster's shoulder watching him conduct – had given Dumbledore the idea that another round of choir music was in order to further the sense of community within the school.

The potions master had to endure a full hour of song before he got to eat anything because the headmaster had order the elves to keep the food back in order to encourage everybody to sing along. He glared at the fairy angrily when finally eggs and bacon appeared on the table but the pink creature only blew a raspberry at him and stayed on Dumbledore's shoulder.

Snape considered holding back the advent calendar window to make his displeasure known but then thought again. A riot was all they needed now. Because of the impromptu choir session, everybody was late anyway.

That was why after wolfing down a quick breakfast, the potions master announced that that day's window was for Argus Filch.

The squib beamed all over his face as he stepped forward from the shadows he had been lurking in.

He watched in fascination as the pink sparks of magic surrounded him. When they dissolved, a broom and a feeding dish appeared in front of the man. He looked bewildered. He did, of course, already own such items.

"Try it," suggested the headmaster kindly.

Filch grabbed the broom and swished. He squealed with delight when the broom continued to clean the floor independently.

His cat, Mrs Norris, meanwhile inspected the dish and when she touched it, a small portion of cat food appeared in it.

Filch squealed again. "Professor! You have to thank that apprentice of yours for me!"

Snape promised that he was going to and then hurried down to his classroom. Even if everybody was late, the teacher was still supposed to be there first.

After a tiring day of lessons – the fifth years were learning how to handle Sopophorous beans and it was a mess – he grabbed his new skates and set out for the lake.

Malfoy, Parkinson and Granger were already waiting for him.

"The fine art of figure skating is not something you can learn in a day or even in one winter," Snape began his lesson. "First I want to thank Miss Granger for agreeing to assist me here." He had had to bribe the girl with a temporary pass for the restricted section of the library. "Second I want to thank Gloria that she is providing us with dance music." The fairy hadn't needed any bribe. Singing was her job, after all.

He then proceeded by asserting how much Malfoy knew already. It turned out, the blond knew how to stay on his feet when moving on ice but not much more. Parkinson ran circles around him easily.

"We will need to use Miss Parkinson's abilities if this is supposed to look like a dance in the near future." Snape pinched the bridge of his nose.

On the up side, he got to dance a couple of tangos and waltzes with the Granger girl while the two Slytherins tried to move with Pansy holding Draco while making it look like it was the other way round. They even took the time to practice a death spiral.

"We'll need more lessons," Malfoy informed Snape on the way back to the castle. It was time for dinner.

"You know what to do. All you need is practice and you don't need a teacher for that." Snape had no intention whatsoever to spend hours upon hours with the boy, even if that meant more dancing with Granger.

"But Sir!"

"Come back when you have mastered the steps I taught you today," Snape offered. "And I'll give you a lesson for the next moves."

"Deal!" Malfoy knew that was the best offer he was going to get. He was, after all, a Slytherin.


	12. 12th of December

12

The Great Hall was stunned into silence by Snape's announcement.

"This window is for all of the people of Hogwarts," so far everything was alright, "and it is to be opened by Sweety." Who was Sweety?

"Ah! Our dear head elf!" cried Dumbledore after a moment of thinking. "Sweety!"

With a soft pop, the oldest house elf anybody in the Great Hall had ever seen appeared beside the headmaster's chair. The old elf bowed as low as her back would allow.

"Headmaster Dumbledore has called? Is the breakfast not to wizard's satisfaction? Sweety should have supervised her elves closer! Sweety is a bad elf!" She pulled her ears.

"Far from it, dear elf," Dumbledore hurried to reassure the small creature. "Breakfast was delicious as always! I particularly liked what you did with the eggs. Was that turmeric?"

The elf nodded tearfully. "Kreacher said that Harry Potter and his friends like their eggs like that."

"Well done!" cried Dumbledore. "I called you here because you were named opener of today's advent calendar window."

"Who named Sweety?" the elf asked excitedly.

"Professor Snape's apprentice," the headmaster informed her.

The elf clapped her hands excitedly. "Oh, she nice lady, Professor Snape's apprentice. She always comes to the kitchens and asks for Professor Snape's favourite treats for him. Chocolate chip cookies, vanilla fudge,…" she ticked them off on her fingers but stopped when Snape cleared his throat noisily. "She always gives elves something to do. She makes elves happy!" Sweety ended in a soft voice.

"I'm sure she is very nice to you elves. But would you mind opening the window now?" Dumbledore asked kindly and Snape held the envelope out to the elf.

The small servant took it reverently and sighed happily before she tore it open. When the pink sparks disappeared this time, the elf was holding a book.

Again, everybody was stunned. A book? For all of Hogwarts? It was going to take them years if everybody was to read it.

"Open it," Snape ordered.

The elf obeyed and squealed with delight. "It is a book with recipes! And there is a note, too!" She handed the note to the headmaster.

Dumbledore read it and then silenced the excited murmurs which had started when the elf mentioned a note.

"The note says," he explained, "that we are supposed to spend the day baking Christmas cookies."

The students cheered.

"Since most of us know nothing about cookie baking, the elves are supposed to instruct us. I suggest you form groups of six, mix the houses and if possible get an adult group member. This is supposed to be another team building activity. Sweety will assign each group a house elf."

If you had asked him later, Snape would not have been able to recount the events that led to it, but one moment he was standing at the head table and the next he was in a baking group with Malfoy, Potter, Lovegood, the Weasley girl and Hagrid. It must have been Dumbledore's doing, though Snape had no idea how he had done it.

"Excellent! That's the spirit!" cried the old wizard as he walked by. "Once again you are setting a good example!"

Yes, clearly Dumbledore was to blame, for the other members of the group looked as bewildered as Snape felt.

"You will be working with Kreacher," Sweety informed the group. The elf in question appeared and first bowed to his master and then to the group at large. When he spotted Malfoy, who was a member of the Black family through his mother, he bowed once again. "And you will be making this!" Sweety tore a page from the book and handed it to Snape.

"Cloister croissants," the potions master read out.

Kreacher beamed. "Cloister croissants! Master Draco's great grandmother ate them in Vienna on her honeymoon. She loved them but Kreacher never found out how to make them for her." He took the recipe from Snape's hand and left without much ado.

A minute later, he was back, laden with ingredients.

Snape had never been ordered around by a house elf before but it was an experience he was not eager to repeat. He was lucky though. The old elf made it Snape's job to carefully melt the chocolate the recipe required because "a potions master knows not to burn things."

Malfoy was ordered to make crumbles of butter and flour because "the elegant hands of a pureblood wizard knew to apply just the right amount of pressure when working with butter." Potter roared with laughter but shut up when Malfoy threw a lump of butter at him.

Potter had to grind nuts, the Weasley girl was in charge of the sugar and the Lovegood girl had to crack the eggs. Hagrid was told to stay out of the way.

"Loony should have taken the nuts," Malfoy smirked. "She knows everything about nuts."

"Shut up, Malfoy," the Weasley girl growled.

"Keep using your elegant pureblood hands on that butter," teased Potter. "And no throwing it!"

Making the dough, it turned out, was the easy part.

Once the dough was made to the house elf's satisfaction, they had to form ridiculously small croissants.

Snape's only comfort was that around them, people were sighing, crying out in frustration and cursing. Their group was apparently not the only one who had got a difficult recipe. He looked around. The Great Hall looked like a battle field.

Where usually the Slytherin table was, a house elf was telling Dumbledore off for getting his beard to close to the dough. A little away from that, the Granger girl was working with a big smear of chocolate on her left cheek. She shrieked when Finnigan tried to lick it off. Near the entrance, Filch and Cho Chang were quarrelling over a bag of raisins.

Where usually the Hufflepuff table was, a cat was trying to steal some cream. It must be McGonagall, Snape realised.

"You pay attention!" Kreacher scolded, startling the potions master out of his reverie. "Now we must bake the cookies. Kreacher will do it. Then Hagrid can blow over them to cool them. Potions master melt some more chocolate in the meantime."

They did as the elf said and soon they were covering their baked cookies with dark chocolate.

"This smells so good!" the Weasley girl informed them.

"I have a nose, thank you," snapped Malfoy.

"Leave her alone, ferret-face," nagged Potter.

"Defending your girlfriend?" Malfoy smirked at the Gryffindor.

"Boys," Hagrid tried to intervene.

Potter ignored the half-giant. "At least I have a girlfriend my father didn't have to bribe into pretending to like me."

"You don't have a father," Malfoy pointed out.

It was the wrong thing to do because Potter reached for the bowl of ground pistachios that were waiting for their use beside the cauldron of chocolate. Luckily Snape was prepared. A silent petrificus spell took care of the fighting cocks.

"You will not cheat us out of our reward," Snape snapped at the boys, not to tell them off but to keep the girls and Hagrid from interfering on their behalf. The other group members nodded.

Kreacher then proceeded to show them how to decorate the croissants with the pistachios.

In the end their creations looked delicious and smelled even better. Kreacher took them to the kitchens to be served later after giving every group member a small plate to eat there and then.

The other elves had done the same with their groups and soon people were walking around the Great Hall trading cookies.

Dumbledore gave Snape an apricot jam filled delicacy for one of the croissants. Flitwick had something that looked like a small meringue but had with nuts in it and Sprout exchanged one of the cloister croissants for a vanilla one.

Soon everybody was munching happily on the best Christmas cookies Hogwarts had ever seen. Snape got more than everybody else because his Slytherins appreciated the elegance of a good bribe.

In the afternoon, lessons were resumed but everybody was still basking in the happiness that cookie baking brought, so nobody minded returning to work.


	13. 13th of December

13

On Friday the 13th Snape was woken at an ungodly hour by loud banging on his door.

"NO!" he shouted and pulled his pillow over his head but the noise did not stop.

"This sounds urgent," Gloria pointed out the obvious.

Snape cracked an eye open and yelped. The fairy was lying right beside him.

"Who gave you permission to come into my bed?" he spluttered.

The fairy fluttered her wings and rose above the bed. "You didn't give me a place to sleep so I had to take what I could get." She shrugged. "No stop making a fuss and answer the door. I want to go back to sleep."

"Ha!" Snape swung his legs over the edge of the bed. "If I don't sleep, so don't you. Come and serenade me, like the calendar promised."

The fairy rolled her eyes. "Are you aware that you spent the past one and a half weeks trying to shut me up?"

"I changed my mind," Snape put on a teaching robe over his nightshirt and set out for the door. "Something merry would be nice."

The fairy followed him faithfully and started to sing "jingle bells".

It was none other than Draco Malfoy who was making a racket in front of Snape's door. Since the boy's father and the potions master had been friends for decades, the other Slytherins often left if to the blond to face their head of house.

"Sir," the boy said politely, "I am very sorry to disturb you at this ungodly hour but we have several sick children in Slytherin. It's not pretty."

"They are sick?" Snape asked worriedly. "You should have gone for Madam Pomfrey! I am not a healer."

"It's nothing dangerous, Sir," Malfoy reassured his teacher. "They had to many cookies. It's mostly the younger years. They have stomach aches and some have thrown up. Not everybody hit the toilet bowl." He grimaced. "It's very smelly."

"Did you call a house elf?"

"House elves don't listen to students," Malfoy pointed out. "Headmaster's orders with the governors blessing."

"Whimsy!" Snape knew when not to lose time. "Send elves to Slytherin house. Some of the students are sick. Go and notify the headmaster," he ordered as soon as the elf popped into existence in front of him. "Mr Malfoy follow me."

The potions master led the way to the potions classroom where he put up several cauldrons at once. He left the easy brews to Malfoy – something to soothe the stomach and a tonic to replace vitamins and minerals after throwing up – and started to make a fever potion, a mild sleeping draught and a potion to prevent cramps.

The worked in silence but for the fairy's soft singing. A little less than an hour later, Malfoy and Snape carried small baskets of potions vials to the Slytherin common room.

About a dozen of children were sitting on the various sofas and armchairs. Most were covered with blankets and Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode were handing out cups of camomile tea. Blaise Zabini was talking to a little girl who was chattering her teeth. Her forehead was covered in sweat.

"You will see," the boy was saying as Snape arrived, "Professor Snape will bring you a potion and you will be right as rain in no time at all."

"Indeed," Snape interrupted the seventh-year. "You should not have eaten so many sweets, Miss Mulciber."

"But those vanilla croissants were so good!" stammered the girl.

"You could have kept some for tomorrow," Snape pointed out. "It is not good to overindulge." He handed the child one of the vials from his basket. "Drink this. You should feel better in about five minutes."

It took them the better part of a half hour to make sure everybody got the right potion. When finally the last child – a third-year boy – had announced that they were feeling better, Snape returned to his quarters. It was almost time for breakfast and going back to bed made no sense. So the potions master and his fairy shared some coffee before going up to the Great Hall.

The teachers arrived like always but the students came to breakfast later than usual. It turned out that Slytherin was the only house where all the students looked happy and healthy. At the other house tables many looked as ill as the Slytherins had during the night.

"Severus," the headmaster said, "I'm afraid I have to ask for your assistance."

Snape gave a curt nod. "I have the seventh years during the first period. We shall make it a project for them. That way we'll have the necessary amount of potions in no time at all."

"Good," Dumbledore praised. "I assume the teachers will help handing out the potions?" The other teachers confirmed that yes, they were going to.

"I'll open the advent calendar and then excuse myself," Snape said. "I need to prepare the ingredients."

The headmaster agreed and Snape got up and reached for the calendar goblet.

"Today's window is for Pomona Sprout," he announced.

When the pink sparks disappeared, the plump witch smiled beatifically. In front of her stood a tiny flowerpot with an even tinier seedling.

"I take it you know what that is?" asked Snape. Being a potions master, he knew a lot about herbology but he was unable to identify that baby plant.

"It's a purple cabbage," Sprout sighed happily. "They are very rare."

"Aren't those leaves used to feed golden moths?" Snape asked eagerly. "They are very expensive ingredients and it's extremely hard to get them in good quality."

"Yes," Sprout agreed. "That's their main use. But they also are used for tea blends. It's said that tea with purple cabbage in it will give you full and shiny hair."

"Most shampoos will do that," McGonagall pointed out.

Sprout huffed. "I think I'll go for the money," she snapped. "I'll have to look into the cabbage market."

"I need to go and prepare for my first lesson," Snape excused himself and set out for the dungeons before a real cat fight between McGonagall and Sprout broke out. After the night he'd had, he really didn't need that.


	14. 14th of December

14

The window of the 14th was for the entirety of Hogwarts again.

"She feels strongly about team spirit, always has," Dumbledore whispered to McGonagall and the deputy headmistress nodded.

"You'd want a team behind you, too," the witch whispered back at Dumbledore, "if you were saddled with him!"

Dumbledore looked at his potions master benignly before Snape could say anything about McGonagall's remark. "If I needed a team behind me," the headmaster mused, "I'd want him in it."

Snape allowed himself a tiny smile before he handed the day's envelope to Flitwick who had been named to open it on behalf of everybody.

Sparks whooshed out of the envelope only this time they were not just pink but they came in two whirlwinds, one light pink and the other darker, almost purple. The whirlwinds chased each other around the Great Hall, along house tables, up into the rafters and at last to the head table where Flitwick was waiting, envelope in hand.

The two whirlwinds united in front of the small wizard and when they dissolved there was an ornate golden cup and a heap of things Snape could not identify on the head table. On top of everything were a couple of brooms that were clearly not meant for flying.

Everybody looked puzzled. What was this?

Luckily there was a roll of parchment in the cup. Flitwick summoned it – he was too small to reach it – and read it out to the hall at large.

"My dears," he read, "once again it's the weekend and I thought you'd enjoy holding a little curling tournament. To make things fair, I name Albus, Severus, Voldy and Filius team leaders. Here are the rules: each team needs three adults: the leader, a deatheater and another member of staff of Hogwarts. At least one adult team member must be female. The other team members have to be students, a pair from each house. The game must be played without magic. The rest of you, have fun cheering your team on."

"I guess I'll have to bring the invitation to Voldemort," Snape sighed. "There will be no team forming before I am back!"

Dumbledore and Flitwick agreed. "I guess since Tom needs students for his team, too," Dumbledore pointed out, "he'd be unhappy if we had our choice before he is here. I'll ask the students to sign up if they want to play while you are gone."

The Dark Lord was thrilled when he received his invitation and promised not to torture anybody without being asked to. "I have come to enjoy those little December activities," he admitted. "Somebody bring my snow stuff!"

It was Bellatrix Lestrange who rushed off to get Voldemort's warm clothes and five minutes later a group of deatheaters followed their leader to Hogwarts.

The Dark Lord looked dashing in his long read coat trimmed in white fur. On his head he wore a practical but elegant woollen hat. Reindeer were frolicking all over the headgear.

"People of Hogwarts!" the Dark Lord cried as he led his party inside the Great Hall. "Greetings!"

"It's good to have you hear," Dumbledore cried back. He was, of course, the perfect host. "Would you like a cup of tea to get warm or shall we choose our teams?"

The Dark Lord was eager to start and so the team forming began.

"Potter!" Snape cried as soon as it was his turn to choose.

The Gryffindor hero was not thrilled to be in the potions master's team but calmed down when Snape asked whether he preferred to play in Voldemort's.

"That would be a bad idea," the boy wonder admitted. "Thank you, Sir!"

In the end, Snape was surrounded by Madam Pomfrey and Bellatrix Lestrange, Potter and Granger, Malfoy and Parkinson, Finch-Fletchley and Bones and Chang and Boot.

"We are going to win," said Potter. "We have several quidditch players."

Snape rolled his eyes. "We are going to come out last. Or does any of you know wandless magic?"

Bellatrix glared at the other teams. "The headmaster and our Lord, yes, but who in the dwarf's team?"

"The dwarf," Snape glared at the students daring them to use that word for their Charms teacher, "is a renown charms master, of course he knows wandless magic."

"Wandless magic is not about mastery for a subject but about power. How much power does he have?" Bellatrix mused.

"We'll see," Snape sighed.

A couple of minutes later, the Dark Lord had chosen his last student – Lavender Brown of Gryffindor – and everybody made their way down to the lake.

The Dark Lord conjured stands for the spectators, Dumbledore strengthened the ice and Snape and Flitwick cleaned a large enough area of snow.

They played in pairs. There were to be six duels in the first round and they were going to count points. The two teams with the most points were to play for the cup.

The first match was Flitwick against Dumbledore. Everything went well and in the end Flitwick won because Lucius Malfoy threw back his long blond hair (the move had half of the girls in the stands swooning) at an inopportune moment and his teamleader – Dumbledore – had to throw as good as blind.

"We have to keep an eye on Bellatrix," Snape whispered to Granger. "We don't want to lose because the deatheaters sabotage their own teams to give the Dark Lord an advantage." The Gryffindor nodded and passed the message along among the students. Snape talked to Pomfrey when Bellatrix was distracted by her nephew.

Snape against the Dark Lord was next.

"I want you to give your best," Snape instructed his team. He looked at Bellatrix. "I rely on you. You know how he gets when he thinks we let him win."

"You know how he gets when he loses," the female deatheater pointed out.

She was right. The Dark Lord was known to be a sore loser.

"If we win," Snape instructed, "thank him for teaching you."

Bellatrix snorted. "I've never curled with my Lord before. Have you?" She wiggled her brows.

Snape made a sound of disgust. "I thought you were a Slytherin! He helped you train your aim on multiple occasions, did he not?"

"That could work," Bellatrix admitted.

The two teams were well matched. True, Snape had the quidditch players, but the Dark Lord had McGonagall and Yaxley. McGonagall had great aim and Yaxley's favourite hobby was fowl hunting. Both were great assets to the Dark Lord's team.

In the end it was wandless magic that decided the match. The Dark Lord's last stone ran a wide curve away from the target. Snape looked at his team members in turn but they were as puzzled as he was. The potions master looked at the other teams and for his taste, Dumbledore was looking much too innocent.

"Why did you do it?" Snape whispered at the headmaster once the next game – Flitwick versus the Dark Lord – had begun after a medium tantrum from the dark wizard and a short lunch break.

"You wouldn't want the dark side to win!" Dumbledore cried at a whisper, scandalized.

In the end, the final game was Dumbledore against Snape.

McGonagall and Flitwick provided the students with banners and flags to cheer the teams on. All of Slytherin house was wearing pink for the occasion, as did the deatheaters because of course the Dark Lord supported his spy once it had become clear that the Dark Lord's team was not going to make it to the finals.

The Slytherins were not the only house sporting the potions master's pink though. Most of Gryffindor was wearing pink, too. Snape had their Golden Boy, after all, and Dumbledore had the younger Creevey boy and Romilda Vane.

Snape was convinced that they were going to lose but it turned out that he had wandless magic on his side, too. The Dark Lord was without mercy when it came to savotaging Dumbledore.

One of Dumbledore's stones turned into a white bunny in mid-slide, another was attacked by a bald eagle.

"There are no bald eagles in Scotland!" the headmaster shouted at the Dark Lord.

"Then this must be a figment of my imagination," the dark wizard drawled as the bald eagle carried Dumbledore's stone off.

Meanwhile Potter scored.

The next time it was Dumbledore's turn to throw, a hole in the ice opened under the old wizard and Snape had to save him from drowning.

"That's it!" spluttered the headmaster as he sat on the ice. "I give up. Severus, you win!"

Snape's team and its supporters cheered. "Hot cocoa for everyone!" cried Snape as he held up the cup in triumph.

A little later everybody sat in the Great Hall, enjoying cocoa and chocolate cake provided by the house elves.

The Dark Lord and Dumbledore had spiked their cocoa with something that came from a small silver bottle the headmaster had pulled out of his beard. Together they went through some of the more spectacular moves of their little tournament.

Snape sat with Malfoy sr. and Bellatrix and they discussed Draco's figure skating lessons.

"I love figure skating!" sighed Lucius. "Why couldn't we have a figure skating tournament?"

"We could suggest it to our Lord," Bellatrix pointed out and they decided that, yes, they were going to do that. Snape promised to speak with Dumbledore about hosting again. The black lake was ideal for events like these after all.

Plans already forming in his head, Snape made sure to catch Hermione Granger before curfew to ask her to be his partner at the next contest.


	15. 15th of December

15

On Sunday the 15th, Snape decided to do some shopping. Christmas was near and he didn't have a single present ready. Not that he needed many, mind you. Dumbledore, McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick and the Dark Lord were all the people he exchanged presents with. Of course he usually got a small token for his other colleagues, too, but those were not real presents as far as Snape was concerned. He usually bought a couple of cheap knick-knacks by the dozen for the majority of the Hogwarts staff.

Anyway, in order to get to Diagon Alley in time before all the families arrived, Snape got up particularly early and entered the Great Hall moments after the house elves had sent the food up.

"Have you decided whether you want to come?" he asked Gloria who was sitting on a salt shaker and nicking bits of egg from the potions master's plate.

"Are you going to buy me a present?" the fairy asked. "I don't want to spoil my surprise."

Snape took his time buttering some toast. If he said yes, he had to buy the menace a present but that seemed a small price for a day of peace. Yes, it was a good deal. "Hm," he said, looking at his toast as if it was the most interesting thing he had ever seen. "Now that you mention it, I really was considering it."

The fairy clapped excitedly. "Then I'll stay here. Any suggestions who I should sing to in your absence?"

The deal was even better than Snape had anticipated. But who to choose? "What about Sprout?" he offered. "Or McGonagall?"

"I'd rather sing to students," mused Gloria. "They are more fun."

"Then sing for the Gryffindors," Snape suggested. "They are said to be the most fun." Severus certainly was not going to saddle his own house with the fairy.

While Snape enjoyed breakfast without students on the rare occasions he got it during the school year, today he was waiting on tenterhooks for the Hogwarts population to turn up. He wanted to get his shopping done and he could not leave before the advent calendar had been opened. He would not put it past Dumbledore to call him back from his day off just to open the thing if he left before.

"Severus, are you nervous, dear?" McGonagall asked as she sat down in her usual seat.

"Nervous would be said to much," Snape replied. "but I have plans for today and want to get started."

"Ah, the calendar," the deputy headmistress nodded in understanding. "What are your plans?" she then asked, pouring herself a cup of Earl Grey.

"Just a little shopping but I want to get to the shops before every Dick, Tom and Harry are there."

"Shopping?" asked Dumbledore who had just arrived through the small side entrance most teachers preferred since you didn't have to walk up the aisle between student tables to get to your seat. For Snape it was out of the question to use it unless he came to a meal directly from his rounds. Coming up from the dungeons it would have meant a detour the potions master was not ready to make.

"Are you going for presents?" the headmaster continued. "I'm very fond of that book you got me a couple of years back. I hear they made it a series."

Snape barely managed to not make a face. Great. So he was going to spend the day at Flourish and Blott's looking through the erotica for his superior. Great. Really Great.

"Albus," McGonagall scolded. "How can you assume that Severus is going to buy you a present. For all we know he good go shopping for things for his new roommate." She looked at Gloria pointedly. The fairy nodded and clapped her hands before she fluttered up and started to sing "Joy to the World".

When finally everybody had arrived for breakfast, Snape put on his pink Santa hat and searched for the correct envelope.

"Today's window is for Miss Luna Lovegood," Snape announced and the blond girl hurried up to him from the Ravenclaw table.

"Thank you, professor!" she cried as she took her prize from his hand. "Look!" she squealed excitedly as she took her new book back to her housemates a little later.

"Did you see what kind of book that was?" Dumbledore sounded a little worried. Usually when students gathered around a book so eagerly it meant nothing good. On the other hand, these were Ravenclaws. Gathering around books was in their blood.

"Magical creatures of the Alps," the potions master informed the older wizard.

"Really?" cried Flitwick who was clearly pleased that one of his own house had been chosen to open a window. "I must tell the children about that Lindwurm I once saw in Carinthia!" He hurried down to the Ravenclaw table to talk to his students.

"I want to hear that story!" cried Gloria who had finished her song. The fairy fluttered after the tiny head of Ravenclaw.

Severus did not lose any time by trying to find out what a Lindwurm was but took his leave from his colleagues and – after getting his wallet and his cloak – apparated to Diagon Alley.

He sighed happily when he saw that only a couple of other shoppers were around at that time of the day, and all of them were adults; no squealing or screaming children in sight.

First Severus went to the bookstore to get Dumbledore's book. He blushed to the roots of his hair when a girl he had taught only two years ago led the way to a rather hidden alcove where they now stored the naughty books.

"I never guessed you had it in you, Professor," the girl even had the impertinence to wink at him!

"I'm buying a present," Snape growled.

"Of course!" The girl winked again.

Snape ignored it and took a look at the shelf. Although there were not too many books it would take quite a while to find the right one but the potions master felt uncomfortable asking his ex-student for assistance.

With a sigh he resigned himself to spending half of his day off looking through photobooks.

"Shopping for Dumbledore?"

Snape dropped the tome he was just holding. 'Magical guys and muggle cars'. He had been so focussed on a picture of a blue-eyed wizard in a minimum of clothes sprawled on the bonnet of a Ferrari that he hadn't paid attention to his surroundings.

"Lucius," he piped. "What a surprise."

"Indeed," the blond wizard drawled. "I'm shopping for our Lord."

"I had no idea that he is into photobooks," Severus was stunned.

"No," Lucius hurried to say, "what I mean to say is that I'm doing his shopping." He showed a list in the Dark Lord's handwriting. "He wants me to get one of these books for Dumbledore."

That was why Severus Snape, potions master extraordinaire, and Lucius Malfoy, right hand man to the darkest wizards of all times, spent the next two hours going through that particular shelf together.

"I had no idea that it is even possible to bend a leg in that direction," Lucius huffed at some point.

"Not without the cruciatus curse," Snape agreed. "It looks painful."

Snape was close to giving up when he came across the book he had given Dumbledore a couple of years ago. From there it was easy. The spines of all books in the series were decorated with a similar design.

"Ha!" cried Snape. "He has the first of the series and he loves it."

He picked one of the books and handed another to Lucius.

"Thank you, Severus," the blond sighed gratefully. "I don't think I could have done this for much longer."

The ex-student smirked at Snape and his companion when they stepped up to the counter to pay for their books.

"It would do you good to use a little more discretion," Lucius said threateningly. "We are a teacher and governor of Hogwarts. Can you really afford to lose all the business with the school?"

"I have to apologize, Sir," the girl hurried to say. She even wrapped their purchases in inconspicuous brown parchment for free.

The next shop for both, Snape and Lucius Malfoy, was Scrivenshaft's quill shop.

Snape got an elegant quill for McGonagall there. The animagus often ran out of them because she liked to play with them when she was in cat form. And since he was a Slytherin and liked killing two birds with one stone, Snape also got some green ink for Sprout.

"Look at this," Lucius called from the back of the shop. He had found wells with charmed ink.

Snape grinned. If he found something for Flitwick, too, in this shop, he was done and could spend the rest of the day browsing for potions ingredients!

The charmed inks were fun. There were some that changed colour according to the mood of the writer. Others were designed to give false messages unless a code word was used, and others even wrote letters of their own accord if you spilt a spoonful on an empty parchment.

Snape decided on a bottle of the code word ink for Flitwick.

"I'm done," he informed Lucius. "Give my best regards to our Lord."

"You are done?" asked Lucius. "What did you get him?"

Snape laughed. It was a sound he was not used to but the occasion called for it. "I won't tell you that. Everybody knows you can't keep a secret!"

Lucius pouted and Snape left the shop.

Once outside, he blew a sigh of relief. He almost had forgotten to buy for the Dark Lord!

Luckily the dark wizard was easy to buy for when you knew him a little closer. Not many were aware that the Dark Lord had a sweet tooth and enjoyed marzipan.

A short trip to Honeyduke's Diagon Alley store later, Snape was really done. He had a box of fine chocolates filled with marzipan and a bag of various sweets for Gloria. The potions master had seen the fairy indulge in sweets on several occasions but he had no idea which she preferred, so he had gotten a bit of everything.

Feeling that he deserved a reward, Snape went to Fortescue's for a cup of coffee. He even bought himself a dash of Irish cream and a sinful mountain of whipped cream; and since it was lunchtime, that slice of walnut cake with buttercream was definitely a necessity. It was very unhealthy to skip meals after all.

The afternoon was spent at the apothecary's where Snape got replacements for some of his rarer ingredients. The time before Christmas was ideal for that because the shop offered a plethora of discounts on various things. If Snape managed to save the school enough money, Dumbledore might even be willing to grant him another day off during the holiday.

It was time for dinner when the potions master returned to Hogwarts. There was laughter coming from the Great Hall, so he called for Whimsy to take his cloak and purchases back to his quarters and went straight to the Great Hall.

Gloria and the Ravenclaw students were singing and the other houses were trying to sing along.

Snape was puzzled. This was not a Christmas song.

"They spent all day working on the lyrics," Flitwick informed him with a chuckle.

Snape listened closer and huffed.

The fairy and the house of the eagles had made up a song about how he – Severus Snape, our hero in the black cape – had supposedly fought all kinds of creatures.

"I love the verse how you saved a blonde witch from a dragon," whispered Flitwick. So far the children had not realised that the protagonist of their song had taken his seat at the head table.

McGonagall chuckled. "I prefer his fight against the ghoul who had kidnapped a redhead."

"Do I save a girl in every verse?" asked Snape.

"No," grinned Flitwick. "They have one in which you save twins."

The students sang on until Dumbledore pointed out that the elves wanted to wash the dishes. Snape was surprised by their cheek. The protagonist of their song was sitting right in front of them but that didn't stop them.

Only when he got up to leave the hall did our potions master feel the magic of a notice-me-not charm on his person. He reached for his wand but Flitwick stopped him.

"Don't make them feel bad," the small teacher smiled. "Leave it on until you reach the dungeons."

And Snape did.


	16. 16th of December

16

Snape woke bright and early the next morning. He didn't even mind Gloria singing "The First Noel" as soon as he opened his eyes. The evening before, Snape had wrapped his gifts. Gloria had helped him with the tape and he had given her the sweets he had purchased for her.

Later they had asked the house elves for hot chocolate and Snape had confessed that he had been at dinner. Since he didn't seem to mind that they had made up a song about his supposedly heroics, Gloria had happily pointed out her favourite parts of the lyrics and they had shared a good laugh or two.

The potions master's good mood was destroyed when he read out the day's recipient of the advent calendar window. Why, oh why, did the bane of his existence, the golden boy, Saint Potter get a window of Severus's calendar every single year when there was a choice of several hundred people?

Potter had the cheek to thank Snape politely before he opened the envelope.

Pink sparks shot out of their small jail as if they had been waiting for their release on tenterhooks. They raced up into the rafters and then dove down to form a whirlwind around the golden Gryffindor.

Snape's mood improved instantly, even beyond the level it had been before, when the sparks died down.

Harry Potter was now wearing a set of white robes that looked suspiciously like a dress. Large white wings were attached to the boy wonder's back and a gloriole was hovering over his head. Potter looked down at the robes unhappily.

He unrolled a small roll of parchment that had appeared in front of him and read out.

"Dear everybody, today you will start working on this year's nativity play. Young Harry will be in charge of everything and he will play the angel. Harry, once you have found all your actors, touch your wand to this parchment and the costumes will appear."

There were cries of excitement and anticipation from all four house tables. People shouted at the newly assigned director that they wanted a part in the play.

"I suggest you hold auditions," Snape told the young hero. "Unless you want to be pestered all day. On second thought, you probably bask in the attention."

Potter glared at Snape angrily before he turned back to the students and signalled them to listen. "This is going to end in chaos if we don't use a little discipline. Everybody who wants to be an actor, contact my assistant, Professor Snape. He will assign you a time for your audition. Everybody who wants to help in another way, contact my second assistant, Hermione. Thank you!"

Snape was going to protest but Dumbledore clapped his hands and everybody joined in, thwarting the potions master's attempt to refuse the job.

Well, if he was going to waste his time assisting Potter, Severus Snape was certainly going to do a proper job. He got up and asked for silence with raised hands.

He got it.

"Everybody who wants to sign up, do so in writing before the end of lunch break. A list of appointments with Potter will be up before the start of the second afternoon period." Luckily Snape's first afternoon class was at a stage of studying the properties of various nocturnal plants where a reading assignment was perfectly fitting for the lesson.

Snape was enjoying a cup of cocoa with Gloria singing "White Christmas" in front of his fireplace when his evening was interrupted by loud knocking on the door.

The potions master looked at the clock on his mantle, clearly irritated. It was almost curfew. Who would dare and try to knock his door down at this time?

It was Potter.

"I'm hungry!" cried the boy wonder instead of a word of greeting. "But the house elves don't answer to students. Get me something to eat!"

"I'm not your waiter," Snape pointed out the obvious. "Why would I do that?"

"Because you plastered auditions all the way through dinner time. I had not a single free minute to have a bite! It's entirely your fault that I'm starving!"

"You couldn't have a sandwich while looking at your candidates?" Snape asked innocently.

Potter glared at the Head of Slytherin and dropped into one of the armchairs in front of the fire uninvited. "I'm not leaving before I'm fed," he stated.

Snape rolled his eyes but called for a house elf. "Tea," he ordered, "and a slice of bread for Mr Potter."

"Bread? Once slice?" cried the Gryffindor. "I'm a growing boy!"

"I will not ask the elves to start cooking in the middle of the night. Also, you wouldn't be able to make curfew if you had anything more elaborate."

"Then write me a pass," Potter demanded. "I want a proper meal!"

In the end they settled on soup, bread and a slice of fruit cake. Potter tried to get more by asking for Dobby, but Snape had wisely sent the elf to one of the deeper dungeons to search for some things that he – Snape – thought could be used for Potter's nativity play.

Once the boy wonder was fed – he was still complaining – Snape sent him off and sat back down in front of the fire.

"Where were we?" he asked Gloria and the fairy resumed her song.


	17. 17th of December

17

"Good morning, Sir!"

Once again, Snape was startled by none other than Draco Malfoy when he left his quarters to go up to breakfast.

"How often do I have to tell you not to do that!" Snape snapped at the boy.

"But Sir," the blond said as he fell into step beside the potions master almost at a run, "you are my head of house. I am supposed to confer with you when there are problems."

Snape stopped in his tracks. "Is anybody sick?" he asked, worried that the younger children had once again indulged in too many Christmas cookies.

"No," admitted Malfoy and Snape resumed his quick ascent to the Great Hall. He needed coffee and desperately. "Potter won't let me be Joseph!"

"And you are telling me because…" Snape prompted when Malfoy fell silent as if that had cleared up everything.

"Because you are his assistant. And my head of house!"

"I," Snape whirled around so that he came nose to nose with the impertinent blond, "am definitely not Potter's assistant."

"But Potter said so!"

"And I am saying otherwise," Snape once again set out for the head table where a big pot of coffee was waiting.

He groaned when he entered the Great Hall. A full dozen of students were waiting by his usual seat.

"What?" Snape snapped.

It turned out all those who were waiting did so because they were hoping that Snape as the assistant director would have the power to overrule Potter's decision.

"All the important characters were given to Gryffindors. The other houses are left with playing shepherds," a girl from Ravenclaw complained.

"Then I suggest you are so good at it that Potter will regret overlooking your talent. Now go to your tables and eat something!" Snape ordered.

The students muttered mutinously but in the end they obeyed.

McGonagall must have heard of Potter's policy because she was looking extremely smug when she sat down.

Snape huffed. Why did he get to do the work and the older witch to bask in the importance of her house? It was unjust and the potions master wanted to hide in his dungeons.

But first he had to get the advent calendar out of the way.

"Today's window is for Albus Dumbledore," he read out. "He is to open it after dinner and he was to invite the Dark Lord as a witness."

As soon as he had read the whole text, the envelope slipped out of his hand and flew up towards the enchanted ceiling where it swayed gently in the non-existent wind.

It was a long day. Everybody wanted to know what was in the calendar that had to be revealed after dinner instead of the morning. And why was the Dark Lord's presence necessary? Especially the younger years were worried about the dark wizard's repeated presence at the school.

When Snape arrived for dinner – early, because he didn't want to miss anything – with Gloria in tow, Dumbledore was not there yet, but he clearly had invited the Dark Lord for the meal, too. There were a couple of seats more than usual at the head table. Snape decided that he didn't want to sit too close to his two masters because during small-talk the danger to slip and give away his position as a spy was too great.

"Hagrid," he turned to the half-giant who usually sat at the end of the table, "I was going to ask you whether you have some unicorn hair. I'm almost out of a couple ingredients that can be found in the Forbidden Forest."

Hagrid boomed that, yes, he had a lot of things that the potions master might need. Therefore, Snape took a seat beside the gamekeeper, glad to be out of the way of Dumbledore's guest.

It worked quite well, when the headmaster arrived with the Dark Lord and a small delegation of deatheaters – Lucius Malfoy and his sister in law among them – Snape got only a curt nod as a greeting and was ignored for the rest of the meal.

Sitting with Hagrid turned out more benefical than Snape had thought it would be because the half-giant not only had unicorn hair but also dragon scales (apparently from a former pet), bowtruckle droppings, a couple of centaur tail hairs (those were especially difficult to come by) and acrumantula venom.

After the meal, Dumbledore raised his hand to the ceiling to signal the envelope that he was ready. And really, it sank down to the headmaster's hand gently.

Everybody waited with baited breath as the old wizard opened his prize. The whirlwind of sparks sped through the entire hall twice before it manifested in front of Dumbledore.

The headmaster squealed excitedly and waved his wand. Immediately his Christmassy winter robes changed into light summer robes with palm trees on them.

"Limbo!" Dumbledore cried and held the pole high over his head.

"Limbo!" echoed the Dark Lord and transfigured his robes to match the headmaster's.

Another wave of Dumbledore's wand started the music. A stern glare from their Lord and Lucius and Bellatrix Lestrange got up to hold the pole.

"Everybody, form a line!" cried the headmaster and the students obeyed happily. The head table was quickly banished to make room for the limbo dancers.

First, everybody danced under the pole without a problem but as it was lowered little by little, people had to give up.

"Limbo contest!" cheered the Dark Lord.

"I want to play, too!" cried Bellatrix who so far had faithfully held the pole.

"Of course!" cried the Dark Lord. "I'm sure you are great at this!"

Two students – Boot and Finch-Fletchley – took over as pole holders so that Lucius and Bellatrix could participate.

Snape smirked. He had a lot of limbo experience because it had been among the favourite games of his apprentice and her friends. He had participated – and won – in many limbo contests.

It turned out that the Dark Lord and Lucius were tough opponents. Lucius seemed to have no backbone at all and the Dark Lord could bend like a snake.

By curfew, only those two, Snape and Dumbledore were still in the contest.

Once the students were gone, Dumbledore brought out the firewhiskey.

Bellatrix and McGonagall were now holding the pole.

"This is fun!" cheered the Dark Lord as he got up from dancing through the pole that was held only waist high.

"I have lessons tomorrow," Snape pointed out when Dumbledore held out the bottle to him.

"Spoilsport!" Lucius took a swig.

"Do you or do you not want your son to be accomplished in potions?" Snape asked. "He'll need a sober teacher to achieve that."

"I can order the boy to read a book," the Dark Lord offered.

Snape snorted – he wouldn't have dared that had the dark wizard been sober but he knew that the megalomaniac was a magnanimous drunk – and made a dismissive gesture. "I can do that," he said, "but unfortunately young Draco is not the only one in that course and I'm afraid not everybody in that lot can read."

"Severus!" cried McGonagall who was very well aware that Draco was in a Slytherin and Gryffindor class.

"It's the truth!" shrugged Snape and the Slytherins present chuckled.

In the end, nobody won. Lucius and Snape gave up because the two older wizards clearly were using wandless magic – there was no way Dumbledore could do THAT unaided – and it was getting really late anyway.

The headmaster and the Dark Lord settled on a draw in the end. To seal the deal, they danced one last time, hand in hand.

When Snape returned to the dungeons, he found Gloria fast asleep on his pillow. With a sigh he moved pillow and fairy to the edge of the bed and conjured a second pillow for himself.

That night he dreamt of limbo and margaritas and girls in a pool.


	18. 18th of December

18

"I suggest you take some hangover potion before you go anywhere."

"Stop nagging at me, you are not my wife!" Snape threw a pillow at Gloria who was fluttering above his bed. That was all he needed, being told what to do even before he had left the comfort of his bed. "For your information, I didn't have any alcohol. I'm just tired."

"A wakefulness potion then."

That was worth consideration. He had lessons to attend after all.

"Remind me not to dance the limbo with Dumbledore and the Dark Lord again," Snape groaned. His body ached in places he had forgotten years ago.

"Stop acting the old man," Gloria scolded. "You are not even forty. And there is a potion for your aches, too. Are you a potions master, or what!"

By then Snape had managed to get up and fled to the bathroom.

Some potions and a hot shower did work wonders though and that's why Snape was walking up to the Great Hall a little later with a little spring in his step. He even stopped at some point and – after making sure nobody but Gloria saw it – performed a couple of dance steps before continuing to breakfast.

"Good morning, Severus!" the headmaster greeted him merrily. He was wearing robes with palm trees covered in snow. "What a night, eh? Tom and I are planning to repeat it in January. Are you game?"

Snape stifled a sigh. Of course he was game. How could he not be with both his masters at one on the matter. "With pleasure, Albus," he drawled. If you can't escape, volunteer.

Luckily Gloria decided that after all the limbo music it was time for something Christmassy and she started to sing "Jingle Bells". Many of the students sang along and Snape was spared having to relive the evening step by step with the headmaster.

After a half hour of song and a hearty breakfast, Snape rose to announce who was to open the calendar window.

"Today's window goes to Millicent Bulstrode," he read out. How did the apprentice know the Bulstrode girl, Snape wondered.

Millicent blushed at being chosen but came forward to the Head Table to get her envelope. The young witch usually stayed in the background, which was no surprise when you had to share classes with Draco Malfoy and the Golden Trio.

"Thank you, Sir," she said politely as Snape handed her the envelope.

The pink sparks whirled around the girl and then manifested into a golden flute and a roll of parchment. Millicent opened the parchment, "It says I'm to join forces with Potter," she told the hall at large.

"I take it you know how to play the flute?" Dumbledore asked kindly.

The young Slytherin nodded. Of course she knew how to play the flute. Playing the flute was her passion and if her father would allow it, she would become a flutist; but unfortunately the head of Bulstrode house had different plans for his daughter.

"So maybe you are supposed to make the music for our play!" Potter cried. "I was wondering where to get some decent musicians."

"Miss Bulstrode, why don't you play a little something for us," Snape asked his snake. He was, of course, informed about the witch's secret passion. Her father had written to him more than once to make sure his daughter didn't neglect her studies in favour of making music.

Millicent beamed. "With pleasure!"

The golden flute made the sweetest of sounds and Millicent really knew how to play. The music was enchanting, there was no other word for it.

"Wonderful!" cried Potter. "This year, we'll have the best heavenly music ever! Millicent, since you are so good at this, would you mind taking over all musical matters for the play?"

Millicent blushed but nodded, yes, she'd love to be the musical director of the play.

After breakfast, she and Potter left the Great Hall together, discussing when and how to organise auditions for those who wanted to add to the music at the play. Snape noted that the Weasley girl was glaring daggers at Millicent's back.

"Draco," he said as he caught up to the blond on his way back to the dungeons, "It seems that Miss Weasley is jealous of Miss Bulstrode. Please, watch Millicent's back. We don't want anything to spoil her moment of glory."

The Malfoy heir snickered but promised to do as Snape asked. "As we are speaking," he added, "I think Pansy and I are ready for the next figure skating lesson."

Snape sighed. He had not planned on spending part of his meagre free time with Malfoy. "I'm rather busy today but I may be able to get a half hour after lunch in." After lunch was better than after dinner because Malfoy needed to go to his afternoon lessons and therefore the time for the lesson was limited.

"Thank you, Sir," the blond hinted a bow. At least he had manners.

In the evening, Snape wished he had planned Malfoy's lesson for after dinner. As it was, the headmaster made him chaperone the music auditions. "You have no other plans, Severus, and you are already Potter's assistant. You are ideal for the job!" Dumbledore pointed out.

By the time Snape was able to return to his quarters, he had a throbbing headache. Why did so many students bring instruments to school when they had no idea how to play them and no music lessons were offered at the school?

Luckily he was, indeed, a potions master and always had some vials of headache remedy at hand. Once the problem was taken care of, Snape ordered coffee and chocolate cake from the house elves. Gloria loved chocolate cake and she couldn't sing with her mouth full.

With a happy sigh, Snape stretched his legs and sat in the armchair closest to the fireplace. He summoned a book – a mystery story about a medieval monk – and enjoyed what was left of the evening.


	19. 19th of December

19

On Thursday, Snape woke to the delicious smell of freshly brewed coffee.

He was up in an instant, wand in hand. The elves never brought anything to his quarters unless he asked for it, they would not answer to Gloria and the fairy was too small to move a pot or kettle. Which left only one possibility: there was an intruder in Severus's quarters!

The potions master tiptoed to his bedroom door. He just hoped it was only Dumbledore who had decided to pay him an early visit. The headmaster was, of course, able to enter any room in the castle. Snape had not given his password to anyone and he shuddered who of his acquaintances would be powerful enough to get through his wards. No, he really didn't want to see any of them while he was still in his nightshirt.

Once he had reached the door, Snape pushed it open carefully, little by little and peeked through the clearance between the frame and the door.

What was that?

A black travelling cloak and a pink scarf were lying on the back of the sofa.

Snape pushed the door open.

"Master!"

Snape harrumphed as the body of a girl collided with him but wrapped his arms around her immediately.

"Welcome!" he purred. "When did you arrive?"

"Maybe ten minutes ago or so. I finished my project just after midnight but decided to wait until morning. You need your sleep."

"Nonsense," Snape replied fondly. "You know that you are welcome here at any time, day or night. Where are your things?"

"The elves put them into the cupboard." The apprentice smiled. "I hope you don't mind. I miss my old room."

Snape chuckled. "You just miss me for my pool."

The girl laughed. "Of course. There are no swimming pools in Vienna." She rolled her eyes. "I'm starving. Can we have breakfast now?"

They had a cup of coffee and some vanilla croissant before Snape excused himself to get dressed properly. While they ate, they exchanged little stories. Snape told the apprentice how Dumbledore and the Dark Lord had cheated in the curling tournament. The apprentice laughed in all the right moments during the story and in the end was scandalized on Snape's behalf.

In return the girl told Snape how she had nearly destroyed the Vienna underground system when she had practice the pink spark spell for the calendar on her way home. Something had gone wrong and in the end the muggles had to replace something they called cables. The underground was out of order for almost a week.

Snape asked what cables were but the apprentice had no idea. Like her master she was used to navigating the muggle world but the details of muggle technology were beyond her.

Later, on the way to the Great Hall, Gloria described Dumbledore's limbo performance.

"Ah yes, he was always good at that," the apprentice mused.

"You have seen him do that before?" Gloria asked with interest.

"Of course! We often held limbo parties at the poolside during my apprenticeship," the blonde revealed. "Severus was great at it but Dumbledore was in a league of his own. That is until he overindulged and was down with lumbago. Madam Pomfrey was so mad at him!"

Meanwhile they had reached the Great Hall and Dumbledore hurried to meet Snape's guest. "There you are!" he cried merrily. "We were wondering when you were going to come! Welcome, welcome!" He offered his arm to the witch and proudly led her up to the head table.

"My dear children," he then addressed the students. "Most of you will recognise her but for the younger ones, let me introduce Professor Snape's former apprentice."

The younger years clapped politely but the seventh years cheered enthusiastically.

"Thank you for the calendar!" cried Harry Potter from the Gryffindor table. He knew the apprentice well because he had often worked with her when she had resided at Hogwarts, especially during detentions. Eventually they had bonded over a heap of cauldrons they had to clean by hand.

"My pleasure, Harry," the blonde waved at the Golden Boy. "How did you like your wings?"

"Wonderful! All the girls want to touch them," Harry cried back.

"Potter!" scolded McGonagall. "There are impressionable children present!"

"No problem, Professor," Potter replied cheekily, "I don't think Malfoy paid attention to what I was saying."

"Some of us don't need false wings to be interesting for the ladies," Malfoy added his two cents.

"My wings are not false!" Potter protested.

Snape decided to interfere before the boys could start a real shouting match.

"Why don't we open the advent calendar window," he suggested. Without waiting for an answer, the potions master reached for the goblet. There were not many envelopes left and it was easy to find the right one.

"Today's calendar window is for," he made a dramatic pause until the students had quieted down in anticipation, "Susan Bones."

The Hufflepuff witch beamed and went up to the head table to get her envelope.

"Hi Susan," the apprentice greeted her. The two witches hugged before Susan took the envelope from Snape's hand.

When the pink sparks dissolved – they did three full laps of the hall before they swirled around Susan – everybody was dumbfounded because it looked like nothing else had happened. The apprentice chuckled but said nothing.

Professor Sprout was the first one to notice. "On your lapel, dear!" she cried.

And really, on the lapel of Susan's robes was now a sewing needle. Which was without a doubt a magical sewing needle.

"I thought you might like to be in charge of the costumes for the play," the apprentice explained to the young Hufflepuff.

"I would love that! Maybe the Patil sisters can help me. They are good with fashion."

The twins agreed immediately.

"Excellent," cried Dumbledore. "If we get a volunteer from Slytherin, this will be a true inter-house project. Any fashion experts in your house, Severus?"

"Miss Greengrass, perhaps?" Snape suggested.

The older Greengrass sister, Daphne, nodded and the four newly appointed costume designers sat together at the end of the Hufflepuff table to discuss how to proceed.

"Potter, shouldn't you be part of that meeting? With you being the director and all?" Snape asked smugly.

"Nah," the saviour of the wizarding world replied. "I think I'll send my assistant. I'm not really into fashion."

"I don't have time for that," Snape growled. The apprentice agreed.

"You are not very supportive," Potter pointed out. He looked at the headmaster expectantly.

"I'm sorry, Harry," the old wizard said, "but Professor Snape needs to take care of his guest. Either you take care of the matter or you will have to find an assistant to the assistant."

In the end, Lavender Brown was appointed to be the director's assistant when it came to fashion.

Snape spent the day teaching like always. The only difference was that his apprentice joined him in class like she had done before she had become a potions mistress. It was like good old times. The young witch knew which ingredients to get and who needed assistance before Snape told her. It was pure bliss.

In the evening, they attended a rehearsal for the nativity play together. Everything went well but for another shouting match between Potter and Malfoy. Snape had to interfere when the boys started to push each other.

Once the rehearsal was over, Snape retreated to his quarters with his guest and Gloria. They had a dive in the pool and enjoyed a strawberry margarita before they went to bed. Snape hadn't slept so well in a long time.


	20. 20th of December

20

"Remind me to talk to the headmaster about the figure skating event," Snape said to his apprentice on their way up to breakfast.

"Figure skating?" the girl asked. "When?"

"I was thinking tomorrow but the Dark Lord sent a note early today. He wants to hold an unforgivable workshop with his people tomorrow. I'll have to ask the headmaster to move the figure skating to Sunday."

"You are moving the figure skating to Sunday?" Draco Malfoy caught up to his head of house at a jog. "Wonderful! That will give Pansy and me time to practice the lift you showed us the other day."

Snape nodded. "That's a good idea, as far as I remember you had trouble keeping the balance when you started to set her down. You have to try and not slow down during that part of the move."

Malfoy thought about it. "You are right. I thought slowing down would help but it's actually making it worse."

Dumbledore agreed easily to move the figure skating for the Dark Lord. "It gives Minerva and me more time to practice," he informed Snape and his apprentice. "We were trying a death spiral the other day but I was not satisfied with how it went. Are you two going to participate?"

"I already asked Miss Granger," Snape informed his superior. He was not going to give up his dance partner of almost a month.

"I didn't bring my skates," the apprentice added. "And transfigured ones never are the same as real ones. I'm looking forward to watching the event. I'm sure my master is extremely elegant on ice."

The headmaster grinned. "I'm sure he is but Minerva and I are going to beat him, of course."

Snape rolled his eyes and the apprentice winked. The potions master was not sure what the witch could do but it felt good to have somebody on his side.

"Today's advent calendar window," Snape read out after a continental breakfast with fresh bread rolls, butter and apricot jam – the elves had provided the apprentice's favourite breakfast dish to celebrate her presence –, "is for the castle and Gloria is to open it." He raised his brows.

There was muttering among the students. The fairy was not even a permanent resident of the castle!

Gloria ignored the stifled protests and flew up to Snape to get her envelope. It was, however, too heavy for her. The potions master had to hold it out and all the fairy could do was pull it open.

The storm of sparks that left their confinement was the most spectacular they had yet seen. A glittering stream rushed up to the rafters, exploded like fireworks and came down along the walls in dozens of tiny pink rivulets of sparks. The whole hall appeared pink for a moment.

When the pink glittering faded, the Great Hall looked like a winter wonderland. The walls were covered in frost, icicles hung from the rafters and snowflakes fell from the ceiling. The tips of the Christmas trees which Flitwick and some of his students had decorated earlier in the week now wore caps of snow. The glittering stars the charms master had put up there now looked like they were sitting on a white pillow.

The snow and frost reflected the candle light and the whole hall was glittering and sparkling. It looked truly magical.

"How did you do that?" Hermione Granger asked once the students had oohed and aahed their fill.

"It's a series of charms, actually," said the apprentice, "combined with a potion to stabilize the frost."

"There was a potion in that envelope?" asked Draco Malfoy. "It looked all flat."

"I thought you weren't supposed to spell potions," added Harry Potter.

In the end, Dumbledore had to change the timetables of the whole school.

The sixth and seventh years stayed in the Great Hall to be taught how to put a winter decoration like the one from the calendar into a tiny container. The headmaster himself, Snape, the apprentice and Flitwick were going to teach.

The first through fifth years knew not enough magic to stand a chance of mastering that piece of magic and got to sit normal lessons. There had to be made some changes because Snape and Flitwick both were supposed to have classes with younger students but Dumbledore wasn't a wizard for nothing. One wave of his wand and the schedules rearranged themselves.

The four teachers divided tasks between themselves.

Flitwick was to teach the students how to make a winter decoration. There were charm to make icicles, more to keep them from melting, and even ones to make sure they didn't fall from the ceiling and hurt anybody. There were more charms for snow and frost, and the tiny wizard even knew one that make your breath visible like in the cold without actually lowering the room temperature.

Dumbledore taught the students how extend the interior of a small vessel to make it as good as bottomless. It turned out that Hermione Granger was already well aware of that spell and had even mastered it. That explained why she had stopped bringing a school bag to class and instead showed up with a pearly handbag. Snape had been wondering.

Snape taught the students how to brew a potion to stabilize charms. They had put up an impromptu potions lab at the Gryffindor table – Snape was not ready to ruin any other house table if Longbottom exploded another cauldron and said so. The potions master asked the house elves to bring the ingredients he needed for the lesson. The potion was simple enough and the ingredients that were needed were harmless or he wouldn't have asked the elves to handle them.

The apprentice showed the students how to make the content of a small container rush out in a display of sparks. Soon the decorations of the Great Hall reflected sparks in all colours of the rainbow. It turned out that the sparks always took on the caster's favourite colour and it was extremely difficult to change that. The apprentice demonstrated how to do it but it was obvious that it was very tiring.

"Slytherin green, Potter?" Malfoy mocked when the Griffindor hero opened a pill box he had charmed.

"The colour of my eyes," Potter huffed through gritted teeth. "Well, let's see what your favourite colour is. Until you have demonstrated otherwise, I'll assume it is Gryffindor red."

Malfoy huffed and cast the spell at the small box he had been given to practice with. He blushed when he opened it and baby blue sparks flew out.

"Baby blue?" Potter rolled with laughter. "How mature!"

"I look good in baby blue," Malfoy said defensively.

"Like the cry baby you are," Potter continued to mock.

"Stop it boys!" the apprentice gave them a glare that was worthy of her master. "As you have both mastered this part of the lesson, you can proceed to another."

Potter went to Flitwick and Malfoy joined his head of house.

It took them all day until every student was able to make something similar to the advent calendar window but it was a joy to teach them. For once, every single student was eager to master the magic required. They practiced willingly and asked intelligent questions.

Some even managed to make small changes to what they had learned.

Hermione Granger succeeded in making garlands of flowers instead of icicles and Lavender Brown surprised everybody by replacing the snowflakes with butterflies.

The four teachers were thrilled with the success of the workshop because, they all agreed, teaching was the most wonderful profession imaginable when you had students who really wanted to learn.

In the evening, Dumbledore led the four heads of house and Snape's apprentice from Common Room to Common Room. Every house had decorated theirs using what they had learned earlier.

The Slytherins had gone for the winter theme, the Hufflepuffs had done that, too. The Ravenclaws had replaced the frost on the walls with dew and small birds where fluttering through the air.

The Gryffindor Common Room looked like a battlefield. Some genius had decided they needed tiny dragons to fly around – "What a splendid piece of transfiguration, 50 points to Gryffindor" Dumbledore and McGonagall cried in unison – for decoration purposes. The problem was that the small hooligans spat fire.

"50 points from Gryffindor for putting the younger students in danger," said Flitwick.

"50 points from Gryffindor for damaging school property," drawled Snape looking at the burn holes in the sofas and armchairs pointedly.

"That was imprudent, children," Sprout said kindly. "It could have gone very wrong."

Snape pointed out to her that it already had gone wrong but the kind head of Hufflepuff ignored him. Instead she banished the dragons and started to help the seventh years repair the damage the small creatures had done.

"I think they have it under control," Snape whispered to his apprentice as Dumbledore and McGonagall assisted the Gryffindor students, too. "Why don't we go downstairs and swim a round before bed?"

The apprentice didn't need to be told twice.

A little later, they were both floating in Snape's pool on air mattresses. They even had a small one for Gloria. There were margaritas, and the fairy sang for them.

She started with Christmas songs and went through other areas of her repertoire later.


	21. 21st of December

21

It was Saturday, and Snape had the intention to enjoy it. That was why he pushed his teaching robes aside early in the morning and stepped into his cupboard.

The apprentice was already up and about, namely she was swimming in the pool.

"You are using it for actually swimming?" Snape asked, amusement lacing his voice. For years the pool had been used for lounging around it and in it on air mattresses.

The apprentice splashed a handful of water at the potions master. "You should try it," she laughed. "It's good for your fitness."

"Excuse me," Snape mock-protested. "I'll have you know that I am very fit."

"For a man of your age," the witch admitted, "but there is always room to improve. All that potion stirring does wonder to your arms, I'll give you that, but what about your legs? And your behind?"

"You have been looking at my backside?" Snape shrugged of his robes and dove into the pool. When he resurfaced beside the witch, he blew up a small fountain of water. "I don't think that's appropriate, young lady."

"You are no longer my master, technically," the witch informed him. "I can stare at any part of you I want for as long as I want and nobody can forbid it."

"In that case, I have to make sure my behind is pleasing for the eye," Snape nodded and pushed away from the poolside. The apprentice followed and they swam side by side.

A half hour later, Snape ordered a light breakfast to the poolside.

Breakfast at the Great Hall was almost over when the two potions experts made their appearance.

"Where were you!" cried Dumbledore. "We have been waiting for you!"

"Don't answer that," McGonagall glared at them sternly. "We don't want to hear about your escapades."

"Escapades?" asked Snape, puzzled.

"Your hair," Sprout stage-whispered.

Ah yes. They had forgotten to dry their hair.

"We were swimming. You should try it, too. It does wonders for your fitness," Snape informed the deputy headmistress with dignity.

"Swimming? Where would you go swimming at this time of the year?"

Snape cursed. The existence of his pool was not common knowledge and he wanted that to remain so. That would be all he needed, McGonagall walking through his bedroom to get to the pool.

"The lake," the apprentice interfered. "Ice swimming has a long tradition on the continent. I've come to love it and I wanted to share the experience with my master."

McGonagall glared at the other witch, clearly not believing a word.

"Why don't you join us one of these days," the apprentice suggested.

"You want me to believe that you destroyed the ice one day before the skating contest Severus has been looking forward to?" McGonagall huffed.

"To be honest, Minerva," Snape took over again, "I do not care what you believe. You are not my mother."

"But the example you set for the students!"

"He teaches them to be open-minded," Dumbledore pointed out. "Now, if you please, Severus, everybody is dying to find out what is in today's calendar window.

Snape took advantage of the change of topic immediately and stood to get the correct envelope. Meanwhile the apprentice cast hair-drying charms on them both.

"Today's window is for everybody," Snape read out. "The person to open it is Ernie McMillan."

The Hufflepuff prefect got up and walked to the head table proudly. It was not often, after all, that Hufflepuff house got some glory. They were hard workers and achieved just as much as the other houses, but unlike some, they were no attention-seekers.

This time the sparks stayed near the head table and when they dissolved, Ernie was standing in front of a big cauldron full of potion.

"What is that?" Snape turned to the apprentice immediately.

"I won't spoil the fun. It's completely harmless and fun."

Snape would not have it. He got up and took a cupful of potion from the cauldron. He did, however, not drink it but carefully sniffed the fumes. First from afar and then right from above the cup.

"Animagius draught?" he then raged at the apprentice. "You call animagius draught harmless? What if we get a couple of elephants? Or heaven forbid, a blue whale?"

"What are you talking about?" asked McGonagall.

"The drinker of animagius draught turns into an animal for a couple of hours. The problem is that you can't determine which animal. There have been accidents in the past."

"I changed the recipe, silly," laughed the apprentice. "I limited the size of animal you can become, and I managed to limit the brew to birds and mammals. Give me that."

Before Snape could do something, the apprentice had taken his cup, filled it and drunk a hearty sip.

The student body watched with baited breath as the witch sprouted feathers and wings and then took off into the rafters. From there, the robin twittered merrily at Snape.

"That looks like fun! I want to be a bird, too!" cried Potter from the Gryffindor table. He hurried to the cauldron and took a cupful, too. Ernie followed his lead, as did many of the students.

Soon the Great Hall was full of small mammals – mice, hamsters, guinea pigs and cats – and various songbirds.

"Come, Severus, it's our turn," Dumbledore slapped the other wizard on his back playfully.

Snape watched in horror how the headmaster turned into a big tomcat and went after hamster-Flitwick immediately. Wonderful, that was how he had imagined his Saturday. Running after the most powerful wizard of the age to prevent him from eating a colleague or a student.

Resigned, Snape sipped some of the potion. He'd rather be an animal, too, then chase after the others all day.

Luckily Snape became a bird, too. He flew up into the rafters and sat beside the apprentice-robin. He wanted to tell her off for causing so much chaos but all he could produce was the caw that was typical for a raven.

The robin chirped at him merrily before it flew away. Snape tried to follow but there were at least twenty robins in the Great Hall.

Luckily the house elves took care of the cat problem. They provided large amounts of cat food and the ten or so cats that were present soon were too full to hunt anything.

Later, when everybody had turned back, and the vast majority agreed that it had been a fun experience, the headmaster thanked the elves for their quick thinking and forbade the apprentice to teach the recipe for the potion to anybody other than the resident potions master.

Snape took his cue. "I want to know what you put in there immediately," he said sternly and they set out for the dungeons.

The potions master and his blonde witch were soon lounging on deck chairs, margaritas in hand, while the Weasley twins were trying to analyse the dose of potion they had nicked from the cauldron before the headmaster had banished what was left of the brew.

"Did you see Malfoy chase after Potter?" the apprentice giggled.

"Indeed," drawled Snape. "Mr Malfoy makes a cute ferret."

"As does Mr Potter," added the apprentice. "We were lucky they were more interested in outrunning each other than eating the other students."

Snape thought that with some students he would not have minded had they been eaten but he didn't say it. Why spoil a pleasant evening with talk about students being eaten.

Instead, he held out his empty glass and watched the blonde refill it for him.


	22. 22nd of December

22

The day of the long awaited figure skating contest, Snape woke bright and early. He had forgotten how relaxing evenings at the pool were.

"Wake up, sleepyhead!" he cried into the cupboard. "We have much to prepare!"

A little later, Snape, his apprentice and Gloria made their way down to the Black Lake. The witch and wizard were holding coffee-to-go cups, Gloria had opted for a piece of Christmas cookie instead.

They were not the first to arrive by the lakeside.

Albus Dumbledore was conjuring stands for the spectators. By his side was the Dark Lord who had taken on the task of clearing enough space on the ice for the performers.

"Good morning," Snape greeted his two masters.

"Ah, Severus! Just the man we need. Can you conjure boards?" asked the Dark Lord.

"It will be my pleasure, my Lord," Snape hinted a bow and did as he had been asked. The apprentice joined the effort by adding cushion to soften the edge of the newly created boards. The Dark Lord nodded approvingly.

"See, Bella," he said and Snape wondered where Bella – undoubtedly Bellatrix Lestrange – was, "this is how you support a master. Blood thirst is not everything."

Snape's unspoken question was answered when a small black terrier came running through the snow. The little dog first wagged its tail at the Dark Lord and then proceeded to bark and growl at the potions master and the witch by his side.

"She was getting on my nerves with her suggestions of all kind of nonsense," the Dark Lord offered as an explanation. He picked the little dog up and scratched its ears. "In December we meet at Hogwarts peacefully. We do not kill or mime at Christmas. It's not hard to understand." He sat the dog down onto the ice again. "It's time for breakfast." With a non-verbal spell Bellatrix Lestrange was turned back into her human form. Her hair was even wilder than usual after the Dark Lord had messed it up with his ear-scratching.

"Yes, my Lord," the dark witch muttered and went after her master who had started up to the castle side by side with the headmaster.

Snape and his apprentice followed. Gloria fluttered around the five humans and chanted "Good King Wenceslas". Halfway up the hill, the Dark Lord joined the song in a rich baritone. Of course Bellatrix followed her Lord's lead and as a result, Snape had to sing along, too. The apprentice didn't have to be asked and Dumbledore would never say no to an opportunity to join a choir.

The group was in a great mood when they reached the Great Hall where Minerva McGonagall was watching over the first students who had come to breakfast. After a short greeting – the Head of Gryffindor huffed when the Dark Lord kissed her cheeks – they all settled down for a full English breakfast.

"Everything is prepared, Minerva," Dumbledore informed his deputy and figure skating partner. "I'm so looking forward to showing off what we can do."

"I'm sure you will do splendidly," the Dark Lord admitted, "but Bellatrix and I have some tricks up our sleeves that will leave you speechless."

The potions master and his apprentice let the older men discuss the upcoming contest and enjoyed their breakfast. When Hermione Granger and her friends arrived for breakfast, Snape raised her cup to her and the girl returned the gesture with a beaming smile.

"Are you sure you don't mind my contesting with Hermione?" Snape asked. That was all that he needed, the blonde saying nothing at first and then nagging at him for the rest of her stay. He knew that she loved figure skating and had she arrived at Hogwarts earlier, she certainly would have been his partner of choice.

"You practiced with her," the blonde repeated what she had told him every single time he asked. "And I didn't bring my skates anyway. We can skate a little after the contest."

"But after the contest I will be busy celebrating my victory," Snape pointed out.

The apprentice laughed. "I can help you with that," she promised. "And tomorrow will be another day for skating."

Breakfast was almost over when Draco Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson arrived at the Slytherin table. Pansy was limping and Draco had to support her.

Snape hurried down to his students.

"What happened?" he asked, worried.

"We were going to put in a little more practice," Malfoy said unhappily, "but the front stairs are all icy and Pansy fell. Now all the practice was for nothing."

Snape looked back up at the Head Table. "You could ask my apprentice," he offered. "She's a good skater. If Pansy helps, you might be still able to participate."

Malfoy rushed up to the Head Table and a little later, the apprentice was sitting down at the Slytherin table.

"Have you lost your partner to young Malfoy?" asked the Dark Lord.

"Draco is a charming young man," Bellatrix pointed out.

"Miss Parkinson hurt her ankle this morning," Snape replied, "and my apprentice is considering taking over for her to give Draco a chance to participate. MY partner is sitting over there." He raised his cup to Hermione again and the Gryffindor witch returned the gesture.

A little later, Snape announced that the advent calendar window was for the contestants and the apprentice was to open it.

The pink sparks that came out of the envelope wrapped around the witch as if they were greeting their master before they moved a little in front of her and there manifested into a rack of colourful costumes. A single pair of skates lay under the rack.

The apprentice claimed the skates immediately and then invited everybody who was going to participate to choose their clothing.

The couples who were already there conferred before getting their things.

Snape and Hermione were the first to take theirs. Severus chose an elegant black ensemble of trousers and a long-sleeved shirt embroidered with silver snowflakes while Hermione chose a dark blue dress that had the same snowflakes on it.

When they took their hangers off the rack, sparkles appeared along with a set of new clothes.

The Dark Lord and Bellatrix surprised everybody by chosing to wear Gryffindor red. Dumbledore and McGonagall went for yellow and green – the deputy headmistress looked rather unhappy but what was she to do when her superior had set his eyes on an ensemble.

The apprentice and Draco went for pink – a very dark pink for Draco, it was almost purple, and a lighter one for the blonde witch.

Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy who had arrived by then chose a combination of dark green and grey. And the final couple – Ron Weasley and Lavender Brown – went for brown with lavender trims.

When everybody had finished breakfast, Dumbledore sent the students to get their winter clothes. Draco and the apprentice were sent down to the lake ahead of everybody else to give them a little time to get accustomed to each other on the ice.

Soon enough, all of Hogwarts' inhabitants plus a group of the Dark Lord's followers had assembled in the stands. The contestants were waiting in a small area reserved to them.

"Well, let's get started," Dumbledore rubbed his hands in anticipation.

"Just a little thing first," the apprentice stopped the old wizard. She held out her wand. "I will not cheat and if I do so, just punishment may befall me."

The students followed her lead immediately and repeated the vow after her, wands held out.

"What are you doing!" hissed Snape at the witch.

"Give everybody a fair chance to win," the blonde pointed out. She looked at the Dark Lord and Dumbledore expectantly. "Well?"

The Dark Lord was the first to comply. He was younger and he had practiced. Certainly he could beat the old coot without magic. Once the dark wizard had taken his oath, the rest of the participants followed.

They drew numbers to determine in which order the pairs had to perform. Lucius and Narcissa had to start.

The elder Malfoys had chosen a waltz for their performance. Lucius started the music with a wave of his wand and off they were. They did not jump a lot but there were many pirouettes in their dance which were performed elegantly and absolutely in sync with each other. They did several lifts and finished the performance with a death spiral which looked especially elegant with Narcissa's hair fluttering like a banner.

The audience was ecstatic. The applause was loud and there were some cat-calls.

The next couple were Ron and Lavander. They had no lifts and their pirouettes were not as flawless as the Malfoys' but they had a couple of jumps in their dance which made up for their little mistakes.

After the young Gryffindors came the older ones. Dumbledore and McGonagall started their tango with a death spiral. McGonagall moved with the smooth elegance of a cat but her partner had clearly relied on his wandless magic. Now that he had vowed to not use it, the old wizard had trouble with lifting his partner. Nevertheless, years of experience gave the couple an advantage. They knew how to cover up their mistakes and the students were enthusiastic. Especially Gryffindor house went wild when their Head of House bowed after the dance.

The Dark Lord and Bellatrix had gone for a pasodoble. They oozed passion as they slid over the ice. The Dark Lord obviously liked thrown jumps because Bellatrix got thrown a lot. More than once did she fall into a pirouette right after landing. It was spectacular. Of course, as a pureblood witch she had enjoyed skating lessons from a young age. The Dark Lord had not been so lucky and it seemed he lacked in balance. There were no lifts and the pirouettes the wizard performed could not hold a candle to his partner's. Nevertheless, they got a lot of applause when they finished their performance.

The apprentice and Draco did well, especially considering they had been partners for less than two hours. They even managed a decent lift, a thrown jump and a death spiral. Most of the time they limited their performance to pirouettes though. What they lacked in synchronisation, they compensated with enthusiasm and the audience caught on to it. The students cheered for the Slytherin prince and his partner.

The last to perform were Severus Snape and Hermione Granger. They had chosen a tango, too, and they nailed it. Their performance had everything. Drama, skill and elegance. They were the only ones who pirouetted as one and when everybody thought they were going to stop, Hermione slid out of Snape's arms and the pirouette turned into a death spiral.

Once everybody had performed the students got six white stones each and were told how to put them into the small hour glasses which had appeared beside each of the contesting couples.

"You can give all your stones to one couple or give each couple one, as you choose. Once you have given a stone, you can't take it back," explained Dumbledore.

The voting took some time but in the end the result was clear.

Severus Snape and Hermione Granger won. Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy came in second and the third place went to Draco and the apprentice.

Dumbledore and the Dark Lord congratulated the winners and then announced that there was a small celebratory lunch prepared in the Great Hall.

"That was a clever move with the vow," Snape admitted as he walked back up to the castle with his partner on one side and his apprentice on the other.

"I wanted to give you a chance to win. I know how much you have practiced," the apprentice replied. "And the two old coots will have to learn that they can't win every time at some point."

"Have you just called the darkest wizard of all time a coot?" Snape asked sternly. The apprentice shrugged. "If Dumbledore is one, so is he."

The victory party in the Great Hall was in full swing when Snape and his ladies arrived. Later, there was a small ceremony to present the top three pairs with trophies. Dumbledore and the Dark Lord got their moment in the spotlight by making a show of presenting the prizes to the winners.

After that, somebody brought out some music and the students started to dance.

Snape decided that he had had enough and retreated to his quarters. When he arrived, he heard merry singing. Gloria and the apprentice were singing a duet. The potions master listened closer. No, that was not a Christmas carol. They were making up a victory song for him!

With a smile, Snape stepped into the cupboard.


	23. 23rd of December

23

When Snape woke the next morning – on a deck chair, covered with a pink blanket – he was alone. The apprentice and Gloria were nowhere to be seen and his quarters were eerily quiet after three weeks of almost constant singing.

With a shrug, Snape stepped into the shower and started to get ready for the day.

About a half hour later, he took his seat at the Head Table.

"Good morning, sleepy head!" Albus Dumbledore and the apprentice chorused.

Snape harrumphed. He may have arrived later than those two but he still was among the first people to arrive for breakfast! There were barely any students there yet. Seemingly Gloria had decided to form another choir and she had to gather students from all four houses at the Ravenclaw table to have enough singers!

The potions master decided to not grace the accusation with a comment and poured himself a cup of coffee.

"What are our plans for today?" he asked instead.

"That depends on what we find in the advent calendar," said Albus, "but I thought something relaxing. The students need time to send Christmas cards and parcels to their families if they haven't done so yet."

"I really wonder why so many chose to stay here," Snape wondered.

The headmaster laughed. "You have to ask? The number of students who stay for the Christmas holidays has increased ever since you threw that first Christmas party!"

"I didn't do such a thing. I never throw parties. Ask the people who know me." Snape informed his superior and reached for the porridge and honey. A sweet breakfast was in order. The apprentice added a handful of raspberries to his bowl. "You really need your vitamins," she admonished.

Snape rolled his eyes but when the witch didn't look, he added some more raspberries. They were his favourite breakfast treat, after all.

After a delightful breakfast, Snape got up and reached for the advent calendar goblet. There were only two envelopes left.

"The next-to-last window is for me," he read out. "I am to open it and share it with everybody. Aha." What kind of personal gift could this be if he had to share it with the whole school?

Snape opened the envelope and waited for the pink sparks to rush out but they didn't come.

He shook the envelope a little but to no result.

He looked at the apprentice questioningly but she had the audacity to just shrug at him.

Snape shook the envelope again, with a little more force. Again, nothing. Something must be wrong. He pried the little container open and glared inside.

WHOOSH!

A whirlwind of pink sparks rushed at the potions master's face, his hair fluttered with the force of it. Snape glared at the apprentice who giggled at his destroyed hairstyle.

The sparks ignored the potions master – they were sparks after all and tended to ignore everybody – and did some quick laps around the hall before they settled on the Head Table.

A large heap of transparent glass baubles appeared out of thin air and the students were pointing at something behind Snape. The potions master turned around and found an undecorated Christmas tree.

"Wonderful!" cried Dumbledore. "I take it we are to decorate the baubles and then use them to decorate the tree. Children, I'm sure your teachers will help you if asked. Come, get your bauble!"

There was a rush but the apprentice was the fastest. She grabbed two of the blanc glass ornaments and handed one to Snape. "Let's get out of here before they realise they have no idea what to do," she whispered and pointed her wand at her bauble.

The glass sphere turned pink and tiny, elaborate silver snowflakes whirled over its surface. Another spell sent it onto the new tree.

Snape didn't need to be told twice. A quick spell decorated his bauble with painted twigs of holly. The red berries had twinkling golden accents. It was sent onto the tree, too.

"Excellent!" whispered the apprentice. She took the potions master by the hand and pulled him out of the Great Hall. Once they reached the Entrance Hall, the witch turned to the main doors instead of the corridor to the dungeons.

Snape stood and pulled the blonde back. "Where are we going?"

"I told Albus I needed your assistance for some last minute shopping and he approved." The witch pulled towards the doors again.

"I don't want to go shopping," pouted the potions master.

The girl rolled her eyes. "You want to go shopping, you grouch!" she admonished. "Do you really want to be called back to the Great Hall to show first years how to make their bauble golden?"

"On second thought," Snape mused, "I have been dying to share a shopping experience with you."

"I'm sure of it," giggled the apprentice.

An hour later – they did, indeed, shop first; some of their pool equipment needed to be replaced – Snape and his apprentice arrived at a muggle spa in Bath.

"I read that the Romans used the hot springs here already," the girl informed the wizard. "The water is said to be so relaxing that they thought it had magical properties."

"I didn't bring my bathing clothes," Snape pointed out.

"We are wizards, silly," the apprentice laughed. She handed him a small leather pouch. "Trunks, towels, flip flops, shampoo, shower gel, after shave. I wasn't sure what you'd want so I put in everything."

After getting changed, they met in a blissfully child-free pool of warm water. It was really relaxing. They stayed in the warm water until it was time for the massage they had booked. For a moment Snape wondered why he needed a massage when he already felt relaxed like goo but then he heard the delighted noises his apprentice made when a good-looking – how dare he be good-looking! – muggle kneaded her back muscles.

Determined to not leave the impressionable girl alone with the muggle, Snape lay down on his bed and allowed the masseuse to do her job. Soon he was making delighted noises, too.

After the massage, the apprentice had booked a manicure and pedicure for them both. Normally Snape would have protested but so far the day had been blissfully relaxing and he decided to give the treatments a try.

It was strange to have people work on your fingers and toes but Snape found he could get used to it. It was definitely better than cleaning your nails with a spell after brewing.

Their last stop of the day was a nice little restaurant next to the spa.

"I thought you might like a meal where you don't have to divide your attention between the food and several hundred students," smiled the witch.

"I would like all my meals like that," sighed Snape as he read the menu. "But as long as I have to juggle the needs of two masters and an entire school, it is unthinkable. Therefore, thank you for organising this one evening. I appreciate it greatly."

The food was delicious, not as good as what the Hogwarts house elves usually whipped up, but still delicious and it called for a long walk through the town of Bath before they returned to the school.

It was almost midnight when they finally returned to Scotland. Before they headed down to the dungeons, they went to the Great Hall to have a look at the new Christmas trees. It looked majestic covered in hundreds of glass ornaments.

Snape walked around it to get a good look. He had to admit he liked how you could tell which baubles had been decorated by little first years who had started their magical training only a couple of months ago and didn't manage much more than give their glass sphere a little colour. It was interesting how the baubles became more refined depending on the years of schooling the maker had already had.

The second years managed patterns and the third years knew how to make them sparkle. The fourth years were able to put moving patterns onto their baubles and the fifth and sixth years could combine movement with sparkling or colour changing charms. The baubles decorated by the seventh years were barely different from those the teachers had made.

"It's beautiful," whispered the apprentice. With a swish of her wand she added a little tinsel to the tree and Snape conjured dozens of candles. "Perfect!" the witch praised.

"Sshh!" Snape whispered. "You are going to wake everybody and they need their sleep. Tomorrow will be the annual Christmas party!"

"Then we'd better go to bed, too," the blonde pointed out.

They made their way to the dungeons where they found an irate Gloria in front of the door. "How dare you come back so late! I had to wait in the corridor!" she cried.

"Sssshhh!" Snape glared at the small fairy. "You are going to wake my Slytherins!"

"Do I look like I care?" nagged the small creature. "Nobody cared that I was left here without a bed or even a chair to sit down!"

"Calm down," said the apprentice. "I have something for you."

"A present?" the fairy asked eagerly.

The witch nodded and produced a fairy-sized robe from her pocket. Snape had no idea where or when she had got it. The fairy squealed with delight.

Once in Snape's quarters, they had to watch Gloria show off her new garment proudly but then all three of them hurried to bed.

It would not do to be too tired for the Christmas party.


	24. 24th of December

24

"Aaaaaargh!"

Upon waking, Snape shrieked and scrambled up to the head board of this bed, pulling his duvet with him.

"How often do I have to tell you not to come to my bed?" he huffed. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"I'm just lounging on the edge," the blonde witch, who was lying on her belly on top of the blankets and already dressed and ready for the day, pointed out. "It's not my fault that you are skittish."

"I am not skittish," growled Snape. He pulled at the blanket and the witch rolled from the bed. She landed in a heap with a loud thud. With all the dignity he could muster, Snape wrapped the blanket around his frame and padded to the bathroom.

When he returned – it was a good thing that he kept a spare pair of teaching robes in the there – the apprentice and Gloria were singing Christmas songs in the living room.

"That hurt!" the witch interrupted the song as soon as she saw the potions master. "I even think I have a limp now. Everybody will think you are mistreating me."

"Everybody knows you are a nuisance. What were you doing in my bed?"

The witch rolled her eyes. "Watching you sleep, of course. You look angelic when you sleep."

Snape snorted. "Let's go to breakfast," he ended the fruitless conversation. He was never going to understand the girl's fascination with him and she was not going to drop it. Everything that could be said on the matter had been said years before.

"That's a good idea," the apprentice said brightly.

"What happened to you?" Draco Malfoy asked the blonde when he caught up to his head of house and his guest a little later.

"Severus pushed me out of his bed," the witch informed the boy.

The blond looked scandalized on the witch's behalf. "Sir, why would you do that!" he asked his potions master, clearly thinking you had to be insane to even consider it.

"I will not discuss my home life with you, Mr Malfoy," Snape snarled through gritted teeth. "Is there anything else I can do for you?"

"Actually yes," said the boy. "We need a dress rehearsal for the nativity play or we will disgrace ourselves tonight."

"And that concerns me because…?" Snape asked.

"You are the assistant director, and the director is an imbecile who has no idea how to organise a play. Please, Sir, there are many of our housemates in the play and their parents will come to the party with the Dark Lord. We do not want to embarrass our families!"

"Fine," harrumphed the Head of Slytherin. "I will call a rehearsal." Typical! Potter was going to take the credit, but he, Snape, was saddled with the work.

"What happened to you?" Albus Dumbledore asked when the potions master and his apprentice reached their seats at the Head Table.

"Severus pushed me out of his bed," said the witch. Her limp was quite noticeable. "I hit my hip on the floor."

"Severus!" Dumbledore was scandalized on the witch's behalf. "Why would you push your apprentice out of your bed!"

"Because she came there uninvited," growled Snape. "I was startled."

"Next you are going to say I molested you," huffed the blonde. "I was just hovering on the edge!"

"You had no invitation for the edge either!"

"If you are like that," the blonde growled and grabbed the plate of waffles right from under Snape's hand, "see if I care when you invite me!" She dropped two waffles onto her plate with more force than necessary and then passed the plate to Minerva who had not asked for it. The older witch smirked at Snape and put a waffle on top of her black pudding before she handed the plate down the table, away from the potions master.

"Stop being childish and give me a waffle," Snape growled at his apprentice.

"Certainly not," the blonde informed him and added blueberries to her plate.

"The waffles are great," Dumbledore informed the wizard. "You should try them."

"Look!" squealed the apprentice. "We have maple syrup!" She added a sinful amount to her plate.

Snape grabbed the bowl of whipped cream before the witch could get it. "Give me a waffle," he growled. "I have a hostage."

"You can keep your hostage," said the girl. She pointed her wand at the Slytherin table and summoned a bowl of cream. After taking a big spoonful, she sent the bowl back with a thank-you.

"You are not going to take waffles from the children," Dumbledore stopped Snape before he could summon any. "You know that they are everybody's favourite breakfast dish."

"I want waffles, too!" protested Snape.

"You should have thought about that before you were so cruel to me," the apprentice tried her waffles and smiled beatifically. "Mmmmmh!"

Snape growled and pounced on her plate with surprising speed. "Mmmh!" he echoed after one bite.

"Theft of food!" cried the blonde. "Give it back!"

"Make me!" Snape cried and stuffed another forkful of the sweet treat into his mouth.

"Severus!" huffed McGonagall. "Think of the example you are setting to the students!"

"They already know that waffles are good!" Snape munched.

The apprentice was not ready to give up her waffles without a fight. She attacked with her fork. Snape's arms were longer than hers and he held the blonde at arm's length with his right hand while he stuffed more of the treat into his mouth with his left.

"You asked for that," cried the apprentice at last. There was a flash of pink light and the potions master let go of her with a yelp. The students looked up at the head table and laughed. Their most feared teacher was now dressed in a frilly, lacy pair of pink robes.

The blonde witch grabbed the plate with the waffles while Snape was still stunned with surprise and fled to the end of the table.

Once the laughter died down, Luna Lovegood came up to the Head Table with a plate of waffles. "You really must like waffles, Sir," she said dreamily, "when you risk that to get them." She put the plate in front of Snape.

After breakfast Harry Potter rose and announced a rehearsal for everybody who was involved with the nativity play.

At last, Severus Snape got up to give away the final advent calendar envelope.

"This window," he read out, "is for Seamus Finnigan."

There were murmurs from all four house tables. Even the boy in question protested. "But I already got a window!" he pointed out.

"It's what the calendar says," Snape showed the envelope to the headmaster and the old wizard nodded that yes, Seamus Finnigan was to get another window.

At last the Gryffindor came up to the Head Table and opened the envelope.

Out of it came a non-descript brown cardboard box – with pink sparks of course. Finnigan opened it and peeked inside.

"Fireworks for the party!" he cheered. "Fred, George, I'll need you help!" The Weasley twins hurried up to him and they immediately started to plan when to set them off. A little later, Zabini of Slytherin and Boot of Ravenclaw joined them. Bones of Hufflepuff completed the pyrotechnic team.

As everbody left the Great Hall to enjoy there morning before it was time to meet for the rehearsal, Snape sought out his apprentice.

"I'm sorry you got hurt when you fell off the bed," he offered. "I have a bruise balm in my quarters."

"I'm sorry I denied you waffles for breakfast," the apprentice took the peace offering. "And I'd love some of your bruise balm."

They smiled at each other and everything was forgiven.

Two hours later, the two potions experts made their way back to the Great Hall. Neither of them had a part in the nativity play but they were assistants to the director – Snape by appointment and the apprentice by extension – and their presence was required.

Everybody came in full costume. Malfoy, who had to play a shepherd, had conjured a small flock of sheep. "If I have to play a peasant, I'll do it properly," he informed Potter when the other boy asked him to remove the animals.

"Okay," Potter conceded, "but you are responsible if they poo on the stage."

"My sheep do not poo," Malfoy huffed only to be proven wrong by one of the fluffy beasts.

"No?" Potter mocked.

Malfoy pushed the Gryffindor and a hustling match ensued.

"Stop it this instant," Snape said in his best teaching voice and the two fighting cocks sprang apart.

"Your halo is askew," Malfoy mocked.

Potter moved to have another go at the blond but Granger interfered. "Stop it and get on with the rehearsal," she demanded. "We want to get ready for the party." All girls present nodded.

"And we need to prepare the hall," the apprentice pointed out.

Once everybody was concentrating on the matter at hand, everything went surprisingly smoothly. They had only little things to change: the way Mary (Cho Chang) held baby Jesus (Colin Creevey and a shrinking solution), Potter needed to flutter his wings less because the wind he caused scared Malfoy's sheep and Finch-Fletchley needed to put more force behind the spell with which he lighted the star of Bethlehem.

Once everybody agreed that they all knew what to do and when to do it, the group went to their respective quarters to get ready for the party. Snape and the apprentice stayed behind to prepare the Great Hall before they got ready.

McGonagall and Flitwick joined them to assist.

Between them, the three teachers and the apprentice had the Great Hall ready in no time at all.

Flitwick and the apprentice replaced the house tables with dozens of smaller ones, the Head Table was replaced with a stage for the nativity play for the time being. As soon as the small tables were in place, the house elves sent up plates and cutlery.

McGonagall used transfiguration to decorate the tables and Snape added glittering snow to the Christmas trees. At last all four adults worked together to conjure and light hundreds of small ever-burning candles on the Christmas trees.

When everything was prepared, Snape and his blonde went down to the dungeons to throw on their party robes – black for Snape and pink for the blonde. Snape wore his pink Santa hat and he conjured a black one for the witch.

"People are going to think we belong together," the witch pointed out as she put on her new hat.

"Really?" Snape asked innocently. "What could give them the idea?"

They giggled and went up to the Great Hall.

The Dark Lord and his followers turned up just after sunset. Many of said followers rushed to greet their offspring. Some did so with regal dignity – the Malfoys – others hugged their children close without restraint – the Crabbes for example.

Dumbledore led the Dark Lord to one of the small tables which was reserved for part of the Hogwarts staff and the Dark Lord and his most prominent followers.

"You outdid yourselves with the decorations this year," the megalomaniac admitted. "I was thinking of bringing some but then I thought you have the leading experts on transfiguration and charms here, what could I come up with that they couldn't."

McGonagall disagreed. "Good decorations are not a question of power or skills, you need imagination. And I'm sure you would imagine something totally different than I would. So whatever you came up with would complement my work."

"In that case," cried the Dark Lord and waved his wand. Many ducked, scared by the surprise movement, but all he did was add poinsettias to the decorations.

"They are beautiful!" everybody at their table agreed.

"Do you know the spell to make them sing?" asked Gloria.

The Dark Lord bowed to the fairy. "I do, but why would I make the flowers sing when we have you and your angelic voice?"

The fairy giggled and sat on the dark wizard's shoulder.

The Hogwarts elves served appetizers and champagne (sparkly grape juice for the children) before the students started their play.

Lucius Malfoy was outraged when his son played a shepherd, but the apprentice pointed out how well Draco used the opportunity to show off his magical talent. "Can you believe that he not only conjured those sheep, he also controls them all the time! And he makes it look so effortless!"

"Not everybody could do that," the Dark Lord agreed. "You must be proud, Lucius!"

The play went well, the audience applauded in all the right places, and when the participants bowed, Mr and Mrs Bulstrode went wild for their daughter. Mr Bulstrode cried he was going to make sure that his talented girl was getting everything she needed to become a musical sorceress. Millicent bawled with happiness and hugged her parents repeatedly. Her housemates congratulated enthusiastically once the girl had calmed down a little. Even Potter came over to hug the young Slytherin.

After the play came the main part of the meal. There was turkey and fish to choose from and the variety of desserts the house elves had come up with was so big that Snape found himself unable to try everything.

Once everybody had eaten, Dumbledore replaced the stage with a dance floor and started the music.

Soon the dance floor was filled with happy couples. The headmaster led the dance with his deputy. The Dark Lord danced with Bellatrix, and Snape waltzed with his apprentice, of course.

The party went on until after midnight. Finnigan and his assistants set off the fireworks just when Santa Claus arrived at Hogwarts, but of course they did not know about this coincidence since the man in red had decided not to make an appearance at the party. It just took too much time out of his schedule in previous years.

The fireworks were spectacular, the fact that they were set off inside the Great Hall did not take away from their splendour. Everybody applauded the young blasters.

Snape and his witch stayed in the Great Hall until the Dark Lord and his party had left. Once the deatheaters were gone, the staff shared another cup of eggnog before they sent the last students off to bed and retired to their quarters themselves.

When they reached the dungeons, Snape sat on his sofa. The apprentice sat beside him, snuggling up to his side.

"Cocoa?" Snape offered.

"Nah, I'm too tired," yawned the witch.

Snape chuckled. "Then sleep," he ordered and the girl did.

Snape stayed on the sofa with the sleeping witch for a while, enjoying the warmth of her small body against his side.

It was, he decided, indeed a happy Christmas.

A Very Merry Christmas to all my readers. Thank you for enjoying the month of December with me again. If inspiration strikes, we may see each other here next year. Until then, read my other stories!


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